


Legends

by Starstruck_77



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, F/M, Kanima, Mythology - Freeform, Romance, Werewolf Hunters, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-03-29 14:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19022158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starstruck_77/pseuds/Starstruck_77
Summary: Aubrey Douglas just moved to the small town of Beacon Hills, CA, after her parent's death, expecting to have a normal life again with her Aunt and Uncle. However, when she meets Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall they throw her into the world of the supernatural. As if being a high schooler wasn't hard enough, now she is facing creatures she thought were only legends and uncovering things that probably should have stayed covered.





	1. Chapter One

"Make some friends," Aubrey Douglas muttered mockingly to herself, "Sure that will be easy. Not like I'm the weird, quiet girl who transferred in the middle of the year last year."

"Well with that attitude it will be impossible for you," her Aunt Gen chimed in while pulling up to Beacon Hills High School.

It was Aubrey's sophomore year and it is safe to say she is less than excited. She had moved to Beacon Hills last year to finish out her freshman year, per request of her Aunt and Uncle, because according to them it was not healthy to be cooped up in the house all day doing online school. She agreed mainly due to the fact that she didn't have the energy to argue with her new guardians. Her parent's death was already hard enough and they did not need to fight with Aubrey's anger and fluctuating emotional state. Although, now that she thought about it, nobody at her school needed her emotional state last year either, but oh well.

Aubrey forced a smile as she left her Aunt's car and made her way to the school. Make some friends, she repeated in her head as she passed multiple friend groups who were reuniting after a long summer - probably full of adventure. She quickly came to a conclusion that this was going to be rather difficult. At this point most friend groups were definite and not looking for new members, which did not help Aubrey in her promise in making an effort. But maybe luck would be on her side this year, it kind of owed her after all the bad luck the world seemed to give her last year. She took a deep breath and walked into her first class of the day, taking an open seat near the windows.

It only took a few minutes before the final bell rang for the other students to take their seats. She ignored everyone because that is what she has become accustomed to: ignoring people and being ignored, but it could be worse.

"As most of you know there was a body found in the woods last night," the English teacher began while writing on the board, "But be at ease. The police already have someone in custody."

The class door opening drew Aubrey's attention from the window. A pretty girl with slightly lighter hair than Aubrey's dark, almost black hair, walked in behind the school's principal. He introduced the girl as Allison Argent who was obviously new to the school. That brought back memories from Aubrey's first day where the principal introduced her the same way, but it was much more awkward since it was half way through the first semester, not the first day of school where being new was normal.

Allison hurriedly sat down behind Scott McCall and he already seemed to be taken by the new girl, as seen by the small smile creeping on his face.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The end of school bell could not have come sooner. Since her first class she was extremely anxious to get out of school and go home. The day went fairly well and Aubrey even got the nerve to introduce herself to Allison in their history class, so that was one step in the direction of making friends and surviving the rest of her high school days.

She walked towards her locker and noticed the familiar form of Allison a few lockers down from her own.

"Hey Aubrey," Allison greeted with a cheerfulness that shouldn't exist after a grueling day of school.

"Hey Allison. How were the rest of your classes? Were you able to find everything okay?"

"They were alright, although Mr. Harris seems a little on the stricter side."

"Yeah, he is a pain in the ass. I interacted with him last year and let me tell you it was bad," Aubrey laughed a little as she shut her locker, but before more conversations could happen a sickly sweet voice entered.

Lydia Martin, the school's queen bee, was grinning at Allison, "Killer jacket. Where did you get it?"

Allison seemed startled for a brief second before she replied, "My mom was a buyer for a boutique in San Francisco."

"And you are now my new best friend."

Wow, Aubrey's eyes grew a little, she is here for a day and Lydia has already recruited her for the popular clique. Speaking of popular, Jackson Whittemore has entered the chat as he wraps his arms around his girlfriend.

"Hey Jackson," his girlfriend giggles, "Meet my new best friends." She flicked her gaze to Allison and Aubrey.

"Allison Argent."

"Uh, Aubrey Douglas."

"Right, you were here last year, weren't you," Jackson asked, keeping his eyes steady with Aubrey's. She gave a curt nod before adverting her gaze. "Anyway, this weekend there's a party. Friday night. You both should come."

Allison shifted next to Aubrey uncomfortably, "I can't. Family night."

Aubrey gave him a small smile, "I might be able to make it."

"You should. I mean, everyone is going after the scrimmage," Jackson says. Which led to Allison becoming curious about this school's odd choice of a popular sport. Aubrey's attention changed, however, as they discussed lacrosse and they landed on a pair of watchful eyes across the hall. Scott was looking over at the four and it almost seemed like he was listening on their conversation even though he was on the other side of a crowded hallway.

"Practice is in a few minutes. Come watch," Lydia almost demanded as she grabbed hold of Allison's arm and began to tug her away, "You too Aubrey. I won't have friends that don't do social events."

"Uh, yeah, okay. I'm coming," Aubrey flustered out, clearly stunned by the turn of events. She was not expecting an invite to hang out with Lydia and Allison, but hey the world is full of surprises. She trailed behind the two as they all walked outside and towards the lacrosse field.

When they finally made it to the benches most of the team was already on the field for tryouts, which has to be the fastest these boys have moved because nobody wanted to show up late for Coach's tryouts otherwise it decreased the already slim chance they had at making the team. The team did a quick huddle and broke off to start the tryouts. She noticed Scott take the position in goal, which was weird because the few times she watched lacrosse last year she never recalled him playing, or if he did it wasn't good.

"Who is that," Allison asked as she pointed to where Aubrey's gaze had just been.

"I'm not sure who he is," Lydia replied with a shrug.

"Scott McCall," Aubrey filled in. She sent a smirk towards her new friend. "Wasn't he the one who handed you a pen or pencil or something in English this morning?" Allison didn't respond, but the small blush that creeped upon her cheeks told Aubrey enough.

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Okay. Give me your phones," Lydia demanded after the team had ended tryouts for today.

Aubrey handed over her phone and Lydia typed in her number, then she did the same to Allison's phone. "There, now we can make plans to hangout and go shopping because you both have strong potentially to be absolutely gorgeous. Shame I didn't know you last year though, Aubrey, you could've been transformed sooner."

"Yeah, a shame," Aubrey smiled before bidding her two new friends goodbye. Looking good for guys had been on the lowest tier of her problems last year, but now she has to keep an open mind. Friends are good to have, she told herself even though she felt ridiculous about saying it because she had plenty of friends at her old school in Oregon. Yet this felt different, it was more of an effort to make friends and talk to people now because they hadn't gone through what she had. They wouldn't understand her now quiet and reserved behavior or the panic attacks or the constant hyper vigilance she went through daily. 

Her Aunt's car horn knocked her out of her spiraling thoughts as she finally approached the parking lot. "Hey Aunt Gen," Aubrey greeted happily as she got in the car, "This will blow your mind, but I made friends today."

"Oh my lord," her aunt breathed out with a growing smile on her face, "Are you serious? This is fantastic, I told you it wouldn't be too hard. Who are they?"

"This new girl, Allison Argent, and Lydia Martin," she answered as her aunt pulled out of the parking lot and onto the back road that led to their house.

"Martin. As in the red haired girl that lives down the street from us?"

"The very one. Although I'm pretty sure she only talked to me because of Allison – who is a super sweet girl from San Francisco who just moved here within the last few weeks."

"Argent, you said. I think I might have known someone with the name Argent back in the day."

"Common name?"

"Possibly," Gen responded before they lapsed into silence and Aubrey just watched as the trees flew past the car. It took them about ten minutes before the house came into view. It was a very nice house that seemed to have a mix feel of a mansion and a cottage. It was mostly stone, had a four car garage, steps that led up to the front door, and multiple balconies on the second floor. The house was also covered in green ivy, which added to the fairy tale cottage look. Aubrey still doesn't know why her new guardians had such a big house in the first place because it was just the two of them that lived there before Aubrey joined. To add insult to injury both had day jobs and were hardly home, but it worked for them and the more time Aubrey spent there the house seemed less huge and over the top.

"Alright, I assume that you'll be going on your usual run now," Gen commented as the two got out of the car and made their way into the house. "Be sure to be home for dinner. Should be around six thirty and Finn should be joining us, hopefully his shift won't go into overtime."

"Okay, I'll see you then or probably before. I might just go on a short run."

With that Aubrey ran up the stairs and to her room to change into proper running clothes. She went with warmer leggings and a sweatshirt over her t-shirt because it was getting into the fall season which meant dropping temperatures which caught her off guard last year considering she thought California was supposed to always be warm.

She was out the front door and heading to the trail in the woods behind the house before Gen had even settled her things. Aubrey walked slowly while she put her running playlist on shuffle and began her run. Surprisingly, running had been very therapeutic and relaxing especially when it was in the calm woods of Beacon Hills. It was a very beautiful land and with not that much animal activity it was very peaceful and quiet – sometimes the only noise she needed on a run. Not today though. Today was a day to get lost in loud music as she ran her post first day anxieties away. Although about twenty minutes into her run a different kind of anxiety filled her as she realized she had gone off her normal trail.

"Weird," she muttered as she slowed down to a jog and took out her earbuds, "I could have sworn I was on the path."

The remains of a burned down house were the only things in view to tell her that she was wrong and she was nowhere near the path she had started on. In fact, Aubrey couldn't remember ever passing this house before, although she knew stories of an old house in the woods that burned years ago with a family inside. Since this house seemed to fit the description she assumed it was the same one she had heard stories about.

With a heavy sigh, Aubrey sat down on a nearby boulder and removed her sweatshirt to cool down - fumbling with removing her phone from the pocket as well. She had to find out where she was and what the best way to get out of these woods was or at least get back on her trail.

"What are you doing here," a deep voice demanded from behind her. She jumped to her feet in an instant, knocking her jacket to the ground, and whipped her head around to face the stranger. Before her was a young, handsome man who could be no more than twenty one. Yet the sour face he wore outweighed his handsome features and gave Aubrey an uneasy feeling, like something was off about him.

"I, um, lost my way from the path. And stumbled onto this place. Sorry. Do you, uh, know the way back?"

His brows sunk, deepening his frustrated look, "Go back that way. Its's right next to a large clearing if you look for that, then take a right at the largest tree in the clearing." He pointed in the direction he just came and she immediately started walking in that direction without another thought, not wanting to intrude on his property any longer or question his strange directions. When she walked passed him she got a strange tingling feeling in her arm, but she brushed it off as she entered the woods once more.

Eventually, when she found the clearing and took a right at what she thought was the largest tree, she began running again. She picked up her speed considerably, trying to make up for lost time, and she almost runs into two boys that were talking and walking with a purpose almost. She doesn't want to stop and talk to the two when she realizes it was Scott and Stiles Stilinski, so Aubrey does the logical thing and speeds up even more and runs passed them. She glances back briefly to see they have stopped and were just watching her speed on by. The odd tingling sensation creeps along her once again, but it was barely noticeable enough for her to question it and its second appearance.

Aubrey didn't stop running until she was on her front porch. There was no reason for her to have continued her high speed run after she had passed the two boys, but she simply found it exhilarating and she couldn't seem to stop herself.

"Hey kiddo," Finn calls out as Aubrey entered the kitchen. Her Aunt and Uncle were moving in sync with one another as dinner was cooking and they were setting the table. "How was the first day of school?"

"It was pretty average, but I ended up making two friends."

Finn grinned, "We told you. If we had made a bet, like I wanted too, I so would've won."

"Yeah, yeah. Next time." The three grabbed their food before moving to the dining table to continue the conversation.

"Aubrey said one of her new friends was an Argent," Gen spoke, "You wouldn't happen to know if it's the same Argents we used to know, would you?"

"I think it might be. The last time I, uh, spoke to Aubrey's father I think he mentioned something about a Chris Argent moving out here."

"That's what I thought," Gen nodded before turning her attention to Aubrey, "Your dad and Mr. Argent used to be old hunting buddies. Very skilled as I remember when I went with them a few times, although I think they only ever caught small animals when I was with them. Argent's sister was also a good marksmen, I just could never grasp the concept though, plus the poor creatures. I just couldn't bring myself to do anything to them."

Aubrey listened to her Aunt's short story, but subtly noticed the way Uncle Finn was staring at his wife. It was almost as if he didn't want her to continue or even share the story, like she was revealing a big secret. Maybe she was, but Aubrey would look into the deeper meaning later. Right now she could only feel the tensions grow as the couple seemingly stared each other down.

"So any development with the murder case down at the station," Aubrey inquired.

"We took a suspect into custody, but the Sheriff doesn't think he leads us anywhere closer to finding the real killer or the other half of the body."

Gen jumped in as she finished off her dinner plate, "I just hope they find the bastard that did it. The poor girl was in her twenties; she had barely started her life."

"I know, but the Sheriff isn't even sure if it was a murder. He suspects that it could have been an animal attack, but without the other half it's hard to tell."

"And what do you think," Aubrey asked while pushing the remainder of her food around her almost empty plate.

"I think that something or someone not natural was able to do something so monstrous like this."


	2. Chapter Two

It was finally Friday of what seemed like the longest first week ever, but at least the final bell for the school day rang just minutes ago. Aubrey stopped by her locker to drop off unnecessary books that she didn't need to take home with her.

"Hey Aubrey," Allison leaned on the locker right next to her, "Do you want to watch the first elimination with me. I don't want to go alone."

Aubrey closed her locker and Allison put on her best puppy dog pout which had Aubrey rolling her eyes. "Yeah. It's not just to watch Scott play is it?"

"Of course not. That is ridiculous, why would I watch a violent sport just for the fit guys that play said sport."

"Right, silly me," Aubrey gave a light laugh as the two exited the school and walked down to the field.

On the way down, Allison retells her encounter with Scott earlier in the week about the night she hit a dog and he helped her calm down as well as healing the dog. She also added the part where he asked her to Jackson's party tonight. It almost made Aubrey want to go, so she could hang out with her new friends, but then she remembered that they would probably be too wrapped up in their dates to notice her.

"That's great Allison. You got a date with a nice guy, a little weird, but nice none the less." Allison laughed lightly at Aubrey's description of Scott just as the two arrived at the field. Allison caught Scott's eye and she gave a shy wave as the two girls climbed the bleachers. Scott returned her wave with one of his own, a love sick puppy look on his face as he did so.

The scrimmage starts shortly after that and right off the bat Scott gets the ball, but is then taken down by none other than Jackson. Both girls take in sharp breaths as they watched him hit the ground with a loud thump. That doesn't stop McCall though because next time he gets the ball he avoids Jackson and any other player that dared to near him. He runs full speed towards the goal and when he gets close enough three players block his path. He just jumps right over them and scores.

Aubrey definitely does not remember Scott being this good at all last year. Hell, when she went to one game he was benched and she knows for a fact that Coach would never bench a player with such skill. Two answers to Aubrey's questions were introduced: he either practiced extremely hard over the summer or he is on something. She didn't want to believe that a kid like Scott was on drugs to help him perform better, but you could never know. Steroids seemed like the likely answer because from her observations Scott and Stiles were inseparable and would more than likely practice with each other. But Stiles is on the bench and if he practiced like Scott then he too would be playing, yet he wasn't.

She shoved those thoughts to the back of her head as it was loudly announced by Coach that Scott had made first line. She clapped along with the rest of the crowd and she gave a small smile – which was sure to go unnoticed because his eyes were only on Allison.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Aubrey had debated attending the party, but with the encouragement from her Aunt and from Lydia it was decided that she was going to attend. She haphazardly put on a cute, but casual house party dress that would hopefully be up to the high standards of Lydia Martin. And if it wasn't, oh well.

"Here goes nothing," she mumbled before entering Jackson's house. As soon as she walked in the party was in full swing with couples and others dancing and grinding on one another while music blasted while others mingled. A typical high school party.

"Aubrey!"

She turned around and tried to locate the voice and eventually found the one who called her: Lydia.

"Hey," was all she got out before a drink was thrusted into her hands.

"You're a little late. So down that and let's get you talking to people."

Aubrey took a large gulp of the drink and followed Lydia further into the house. She was introduced to multiple people, but everyone eventually left the two girls to talk to more people which was just find with Aubrey. After a while, Lydia had gotten Aubrey to talk to many people before she left her alone to go hang out with Jackson. Aubrey was then left to drift amongst the crowd and talk alone with other people. She briefly saw Allison and Scott before they were swallowed by the crowd.

Walking aimlessly through the house, Aubrey eventually finds herself bumping into a reoccurring face. She apologized and tried to get another drink from one of the table before she booked it away from there, but he stopped her.

"Aubrey, right? You should hang out with us," Stiles awkwardly comments as he steadies her – trying to keep her from falling after she was pushed into him.

"Yeah, okay. Lydia kind of ditched me anyway."

"Oh, when did you become friends with Lydia," Stiles asked with feigning disinterest, even though anyone could pick up that he had a crush on the Martin girl.

"Um, like four days ago," she answered honestly. "Why're you interested?"

A playful smirk found its way onto her lips as he flustered up an answer, "Oh, no reason. I just don't remember you talking to her last year."

"I'm surprised you remember me from last year. Most people Lydia has introduced me to don't remember."

"Oh, yeah. I do remember you. You used to sit near me and Scott in some of our classes we had together. We talked a few times. It's hard to forget som-"

Stiles was cut off abruptly when someone bumped into Aubrey which in turn caused her to stumble into Stiles once more. When she turned around she saw the fleeing person to be Scott. Stiles had called out to him, but received no answer as the boy stumbled away like he was in a drunk daze. Although, they got here later than she did and she was not as drunk as she'd like to be, so it wasn't probable that he was drunk.

Stiles lightly touched her shoulder as he moved around her to chase after Scott and she too quickly followed – curiosity getting the best of her. Aubrey was only a few second behind him as he raced down the porch stairs. She was on the top step when she noticed it: Allison was getting to a black Camaro with the older guy she met in the woods. He smiled at her and Stiles before getting into drivers side and driving off.

"Who was that guy," she asked Stiles, but her voice seemed to startle him since his reaction was to jump and move his hands wildly.

"Uh, Derek Hale," Stiles tried to act casual – it wasn't working though.

"Oh. Is everything okay with Scott then?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. He is perfectly fine. Probably just a asthma attack or something. I'll go check on him. See you later Aubrey." With that Stiles rushed to his blue jeep and drove out of the neighborhood faster than Derek had.

Now this left Aubrey with a choice: she could either go back into a party where the only person she knew well was probably still with Jackson or she could just go home and watch a movie. And a movie sounds pretty good right about now.

~~~~~*~~~~~

"You're really giving him a second chance after he ditched you at the party," Aubrey reiterated as she shut her locker to look at Allison.

"Do you think I shouldn't have? I mean, I don't know, I sort of like him and want things to work out, but..."

"-But you're afraid he might be a bad guy who hides things." Aubrey tried as Allison's speech drifted off.

"Yeah."

Aubrey nodded and turned on her deeply buried supportive friend mode, which she hasn't used in years, and connected hers and Allison's arms as they walked to class. "I think it was the right move. If you like the guy Allison, getting to know all his weirdness is part of it. I'm sure Scott is just another awkward teenage boy who doesn't know how to act around a girl he really likes."

Allison chuckled at that as Aubrey continued. "So, did you tell him about his second chance this morning or-"

"-I told him about it on Monday."

"Ally, it's Friday."

She sighed, "I know. At this point I'm just waiting for him to take it and make a move or give me something to work with."

The girls made a right down the hall and walked towards the stairs. "Mm, maybe you should tell him directly to make a move. Boys are so dense and Scott McCall is no exception." She gave Allison a playful wink as they approached the stairs going down to the next level of the school. Aubrey stopped abruptly though and withdrew her arm from Allison's.

"Speaking of. There he is. Go say hi or something." She gently shoved her friend forward and the couple was able to make eye contact which was enough for them to strike up awkward conversation. Those two were hopeless, Aubrey thought to herself with a smile and a roll of her eyes before she went off to their history class. Although seeing her Uncle and Sheriff Stilinski talking to the principal drew her attention away from her path to class. She debated going to say hello, but the choice was quickly made for her once Finn spotted his niece and waved her over.

The Sheriff just finished talking to the principal when she arrived to the cop duo. "Hey Uncle Finn, didn't expect to see you at school today."

"Hey kiddo, its nothing. We were just informing your principal about the new curfew for students."

"Oh, makes sense," she nodded while coming to the conclusion that everyone was extremely on edge because of the recent murder. She turned to Sheriff Stilinski, whom had been watching her and her uncle's interaction. "Sheriff, always nice to see you."

"And you too Aubrey. Hopefully this school year has started out less rocky."

"Yep. It hasn't been bad so far, which is miles ahead from last year."

"That's good. Haven't seen you down at the station much since summer ended."

Aubrey smiled slightly, "Decided to take up running again instead of bothering Finn at the station. Although I could always pop back in since I'm sure Finn will want to make sure I'm following this new curfew."

"It's always interesting when you do," the Sheriff remarked before turning back to her uncle, "Anyway, we better get back down to the station Deputy."

Finn nodded and gave Aubrey a small smiles before the duo went to one of the exits of the school. She went back in the opposite direction, back towards the stairs, so she could make it to class on time. She descended and was quick to notice that Allison was nowhere to be seen which meant she had to meet up with her in class. As she made a right down the hallway she ran into Stiles, well more like they lightly brushed shoulders and he decided to make conversation with her. "Hey Aubrey."

"Hi Stiles."

He shifted in place, adjusting his bag and looking around, "So your dad is a Deputy? I thought I saw you a few times at the station."

"Uncle actually," she corrected as she began walking in the direction of her class and he walked alongside her. "I don't think you talk to him as much. He's only commented on a few interactions he's had with the Sheriff's son." She noticed he nodded along thoughtfully as she spoke, "But he has only worked there for a few years, so."

"Oh. Oh yeah, Deputy Hayes. Different last name. That's, um, probably why I didn't realize."

They fell into silence as they continued down the hall as the minute bell rang. Aubrey stopped once she reached her classroom door and gave Stiles a brief wave goodbye as she disappeared into the class. As she found her seat, she couldn't help but cringe at how uncomfortable and awkward that was. She really needed to get better at making small talk with people or maybe she was just terrible at interacting with boys. She just doesn't know what to say and it's not a new development either. This happened in Oregon as well, boys never seemed to want to talk to her unless it was about school work. Maybe she was just doomed to be socially awkward with the male species forever.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The trees in the woods raced by Aubrey as she jogged at half speed trying to figure out where that old house was. She didn't realize that she had left her sweatshirt there until she wanted to wear it on her run today. It also didn't help when the cold breeze on her arms were a constant reminder that she should probably find it quickly since she didn't bring another jacket – not wanting to hold it after she found the other one. She was put at ease when she saw the house just up a side hill from where she currently was. Now she just had to find the stupid thing and escape the house which now seemed to be looming over her as she got closer to it.

She started near the boulder she sat on last time, but nothing. A little farther, nothing. The entire situation was now starting to bother her because she did not want to get any closer to that house to look for it.

"Why are you back," a familiar voice echoed from the burned, unstable porch.

"Dropped my sweatshirt, but at this point I might just buy another one," she said with irritation slipping into her voice. She finally looked up at Derek and saw him glaring right back at her. "But while I'm here, I have a question. Why did you drive my friend home last week cause I'm pretty sure she does not know you."

Instead of answering Derek vanished back into his house. Aubrey blinked and threw her arms up a bit in confusion as to why he even bothered to ask her a question if he was just going to leave. But she got her answer as soon as her sweatshirt hit her face seconds after he returned to the porch.

"There," he stated with boredom dripping from his lips, "Are you going to be any longer."

Aubrey scoffed quietly as she removed the jacket from her face and began putting it on, "Why? Waiting for a hot date to get here or something?"

"You think you're funny."

"I would use the word sarcastic."

"Well, I suggest you run back the way you came because this is private property."

She stared at him for a second and almost challenged him with an 'or what,' but decided against it once she realized how stupid it was. She quirked her eyebrow, looked up at the house, then back down at him, "Okay, whatever. Just don't wait too long for that date, things are in these woods and you probably don't want to be waiting all night to find out what exactly."

With that she gave him an innocent smile, while his scowl deepened, and ran back the way she came until she arrived back home. It was a much shorter run than usual and the sun was still pretty high which would ease Gen's nerves.

"Hey that was fast. How was the run?" Speak of the devil, there was Gen relaxing on the couch in the living room when Aubrey entered the house.

"Good. Didn't see any animals."

"That puts my mind at ease. Um, me and Finn are going out for date night tonight – just a quick reminder."

"That's right. The new restaurant and a movie. Well I hope you guys have fun, I'll be doing homework."

"Okay. See you in the morning. Have a good night," Gen called as Aubrey walked up the stairs to her room.

She began her homework for the next week and by the time Gen came to tell her they were leaving she was more than willing to stop working. Once the couple left she made her way back downstairs and looked through their movie collection. After that decision, she remembered an unfortunate fact: they had no movie snacks in the house. She would have to go down to the convenience store and get some herself. It wasn't a long walk, but she'd rather not risk dying, so she took her Aunt's keys and borrowed her car.

When she pulled onto the main road an uneasy feeling crept its way into her stomach which caused her to be on high alert until she arrived at the small store. It didn't help either that the woods looked darker than normal or the small red lights she saw every now and then – most likely just a trick from her paranoid mind.

At the store, she made a bee line for the junk food aisle and began piling unhealthy foods on top of each other. It ranged from popcorn to chocolate to chips. She was going all out. She went down another aisle when she felt it: a small breeze behind her that was only caused when someone walked quickly by. The thing was she didn't hear any footsteps, so she cautiously turned behind her and nearly jumped a foot off the ground.

"Jesus Christ dude," she breathed out, heart beat increasing slightly, "you can't just do that!"

In front of her was Derek Hale, whom seemed disinterested in the food he was looking at. He lazily responded, "Do what? Come to convenience stores? I thought they were for anyone, you know, for convenience."

Aubrey cocked her eyebrow, "I meant stalkerishly walk up behind someone." She crossed her arms as he continued to look over the junk food selection available. "But if you're here that means your date never showed up. Sad life."

"Or it means I got hungry," he said as he violently grabbed a random bag off the rack. Aubrey nodded with skepticism. He then finally turned to face her, "I also have been wondering what you meant about things being in the woods. Do you know something?"

"Do you? Cause from what I gather you spend an awful lot of time in those woods."

He nodded and Aubrey thought she saw his eyes flash a different color, but that would be ridiculous. "Next time I would phrase your words differently. Someone might get the wrong idea."

With that Derek put his hastily grabbed bag back on the shelf as he left the aisle and the store. Aubrey let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding as she walked up to the counter to make her purchase. Was I just threatened, she thought, better question does he know something about the murder, or maybe more.


	3. Chapter Three

After getting home last night Aubrey spent the rest of the evening watching a movie, snacking, and doing research on hunters. Nothing strange or anything having a double meaning popped up during the search, but that didn't stop her from looking for most of the night. Which was why she was walking into the kitchen later than normal the next morning. Gen looked to be on her second cup of coffee and Finn was pacing around the kitchen grabbing food and talking on the phone. Although he finished the call before Aubrey could catch any details about what it was about.

"Mm what was it," Gen asked, putting her cup down and looking at her husband.

"The Sheriff wants me and a few deputies to join him on a trip to the old Hale house in the woods."

Aubrey's attention spiked at that, "The old, burned down house. What's going on up there?"

"Apparently Derek Hale might be the newest suspect in the murder case. We'll see though. See you both tonight," he rushed as he grabbed his coat, a quick breakfast, and hurried out the door.

"Bye. Love you," Gen called after his fleeing form.

Aubrey's heart picked up as she grabbed an apple and excused herself, making an excuse that she had to get ready to meet up with Lydia soon. But once she made it back to her room the apple was discarded on her desk as she began to hyperventilate. She had talked to a potential killer and hadn't even picked up on any threat. Her dad had taught her better than this: to always be weary and vigilant with everyone. To always observe things ordinary people would miss. She had found the tips weird at first, but it had come in handy multiple times. Yet when she needed to use that skill she floundered and forgot one of the most important things her dad could've taught her.

She took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart and steady her shaking world. It was out of her hands now and Derek was being taken in by police – everything would be fine. Right now she just needed to focus on having fun with Lydia before the game and not on the fact that a killer had been alone with her three times.

Aubrey set her nerves and worries aside and quickly put on an outfit before rushing back down the stairs. She bid Gen goodbye and told her she would see her after the game this evening. Now it was just Aubrey and her walk to Lydia's house. The Derek situation still being fresh in mind kept Aubrey extra vigilant just in case.

As she approached Lydia's enormous house she could have sworn red eyes glowed behind the forest line, but when Aubrey looked back they were gone. It was now just Lydia waiting on her front porch questioning what Aubrey was looking at.

"Nothing, so you said you wanted to make posters for the game," Aubrey changed the subject as she entered the Martin household.

"Yes, we're going to make posters to cheer on Jackson. Although he should be at his peak performance."

Aubrey chuckled a little, "Didn't you mention that his shoulder was separated after McCall hit him."

Lydia looked back at her friend as they walked to her room, "I might have mentioned something like that, but he should be getting it all sorted out."

"Like with drugs," Aubrey suggested with a teasing tone which earned an eye roll from Lydia.

The two finally settled in Lydia's room and began to make posters, they were both for Jackson as requested by Queen Bee. But Aubrey finished pretty quickly with hers and decided to make one for Allison's 'boyfriend.' When Lydia asked why, the simple answer was that it was his first game on first line and he deserved to be encouraged as well plus Aubrey was sure Allison would like the surprise.

When the girls finished their posters they played some music and got to know each other a bit. Aubrey caught on quickly that Lydia was not as dumb as she pretended to be in front of everyone. But she'd keep that secret with her until Lydia was ready to drop the act, which Aubrey was confident was just for Jackson and his ego.

It was getting close to game time when the girls stopped their conversation and Lydia switched back to her public self. "I am not going to be see with you like that," she commented shuffling through her closest. She ended up picking a nicer coat than what Aubrey had worn on the walk over here.

"Put that on and then we can head to the game." Lydia moved across the room and to her vanity to finalize her makeup while Aubrey complied with putting on the coat. Lydia nodded in approval and grabbed both of Jackson's posters while Aubrey grabbed Scott's.

On the drive over to the high school, Lydia brought up the topic of boys. "I'm just saying you should find a guy. It would be nice to not exclude you from mine and Allison's double dates."

"Thanks Lydia, but I'm not actively looking. I'll let it be and let it happen naturally," Aubrey remarked which earned her a scoff from Lydia who then promised to introduce her to more guys like she had done with Allison at school yesterday. She pulled into the high school parking lot not long after that. The two grabbed their posters and walked towards the now lit lacrosse field. Lydia took the lead, head held high like she owned the place, and Aubrey just trailed behind her trying not to trip in the dark.

She eventually made it to the bleachers and sat down next to all the stuff Lydia had disregarded as she rushed onto the field to do who knows what. Aubrey sat down when she noticed Allison and what looked to be her father just entering the field. She jumped up and waved to catch her attention so they wouldn't sit somewhere else. Allison returned the wave instantly and moved in Aubrey's direction.

"Hey Ally."

"Hi Aubrey," she replied as she sat down next to her friend and her dad followed suit. "Aubrey, this is my dad. Dad this is Aubrey Douglas."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Argent." Aubrey reached a hand over Allison too which her dad took it and gave it a firm handshake.

"And you too Aubrey," he smiled, "Douglas you said? I think I might have known your father, Wyatt?"

Aubrey smiled sadly, but shoved those depressing emotions away before they could take hold. "Yes, that's him. I think my Aunt Genevieve mentioned that you were one of his old hunting buddies."

"That's right. That seems like such a long time ago. Did he ever take you hunting or teach you anything after you moved to Oregon?"

"Yeah. He taught me quite a lot before..." she trailed off for a second, "He never took me hunting though. But he taught me the survival skills I would need to know."

Mr. Argent nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. Well if you ever have questions or want to know more you can always stop by," he offered right as Lydia rejoined the group and Aubrey noticed that Allison looked uncomfortable after the whole conversation.

"I'll keep that in mind Mr. Argent." He nodded and the whistle blew to signal the start of the game.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The game was going well. Jackson just scored a goal after 'accidentally' knocking down Scott which caused a small anger to flare in Aubrey. Lydia suggested holding up one of the Jackson posters after that and coaxed Allison into helping her hold it. Aubrey decided to just clap along with the rest of the crowd and while her friends stood she was left staring down at the field. This led her to make eye contact with Stiles whom noticed the sign, or more importantly who was holding the sign then who was beneath it. She shot him an awkward thumbs up and smile which he returned with a half-smile before he turned back around to face the field. Aubrey cringed at herself, face palming just as another play began which did not vote well for the cyclones.

"Who's Scott again," Argent asked Allison quietly, but instead received an answer from Lydia.

"Number 11. Otherwise known as the only player that has not gotten the ball."

"Well maybe it's more of the other players not passing him the ball than Scott just sucking at this game," Aubrey input as she glanced at the Jackson poster Lydia was playing with. That only seemed to spark a fire that Aubrey was not sure she wanted lit. Lydia stood up and held the second sign high above her head and pleaded with Allison to help her hold it.

Aubrey had a better idea though and grabbed the other side of Lydia's poster while thrusting the one for Scott into Allison's waiting arms. She winked at her friend as she cheered encouragement with Lydia. Allison joined in after a second of stunned silence and it seemed to turn the game around entirely. Scott received the ball multiple times and ended up tying the game. Allison was beyond ecstatic and Lydia was slowly but surely warming up to the player as the final shot earned the cyclones their first win of the season.

Aubrey, along with everyone else in the stands, jumped to their feet in celebration – most even going down to the field to congratulate the players. She hung back in the stands for a second though to allow the crowds to thin out before she went down the steps. When she reached the bottom she looked around for a familiar face, but the only one she saw was Stiles who was not celebrating the win. Instead he was watching his dad as he talked on the phone.

She made her way closer before clearing her throat, "Hey Stiles. Sorry you didn't get any play time."

He still jumped slightly, obviously too engrossed into a conversation he could not hear. He relaxed quickly when he realized it was just Aubrey, "Ah it's no big deal. I'm used to sitting on the bench. Still just as nerve racking."

She sat down in the open space next to him on the bench. "Well that's unfortunate. One day I want to see you play and show off all that talent."

He laughed lightly before changing the topic, "I saw the sign you made for Scott. That was really nice of you and I'm sure he appreciated it. Probably even more when you gave it to Allison. Wait, that didn't come out right. What I meant-"

"-Stiles it's okay. I got it," she giggled at his flustered manner. Yet before either could say anymore Stiles jumped up as his dad approached the two.

"What was that about? Nothing serious is it?"

The Sheriff pinched the bridge of his nose, "You could look at it that way. We had to let Derek go because the medical examiner found bite marks all along the body. They were animal bites which leads to the obvious release of the Hale boy since there is no probable way he could have done something like that. And I want you and Scott to stay far away from him. He will very likely not be too thrilled having to interact with the two kids who accused him of murder."

"Derek was let out of jail," Aubrey breathed out quietly as her breathing hitched. Stiles noticed her odd change in behavior and gently grabbed her arm while letting his father know they were going to go find Scott. He guided the girl away towards the school, but they only made it half way there before Aubrey started to breath heavy.

"Woah, woah, hey are you okay," Stiles asked, concern laced in his voice as he grabbed both of her shoulders so she was facing him.

She shook her head, "I think, I think I might be having a panic attack." She barely saw his eyes widen as he whispered an 'oh god' under his breath.

"Um, uh, here. Try and take deep breaths. Try and match up with me," he said as he held her hand, instructing her to breathe in, hold it, and release. He followed along with it as well just in case. Her breathing shuttered as she eventually matched what he was doing. The attack stopped soon after that.

"Are you okay," he asked cautiously.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."

Stiles curiosity got the better of him and he pieced together some things, "Was it because of Derek? Do you know him?"

She took in a shaky breath before nodding. "I've talked with him a few times. Alone. And when Finn told me he could be a killer," stiles squeezed her hand, "I tried to keep my cool. Tried to forget by hanging out with Lydia and coming here. Tried to forget I was alone with a killer. I guess, I guess him getting released set me off. Sorry."

"No. Don't apologize that is perfectly reasonable. Hell I'm even on edge because of Derek. Scott and I are the reason he was even arrested in the first place."

"Speaking of, shouldn't you go find him?"

Stiles' eyes grew, "Oh, uh, right. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine now Stiles. And as long as Lydia didn't leave I still have a ride." He nodded and started to move towards the school.

"Okay. I'll see you around then Aubrey." She nodded and waved as he turned around and rushed to the school. She turned back towards the field, but she barely made it a few feet before Stiles was by her side again – out of breath.

He heaved a few breaths, "Sorry. In case Lydia did leave. Text me. I'd rather you not have to walk home or stay out here in the dark."

She nodded, stunned by his sudden reappearance. "Right. I'll do that." She fished out her phone from her pocket and gave it to Stiles. He typed at lightning fast speed before handing her phone back and running back up to the school. This time she watched him as he ran into the building before she turned around herself and went back to the lacrosse field.

She caught sight of her strawberry blonde haired friend who was looking in all sorts of different directions. When her eyes finally landed on Aubrey she threw her arm up, "There you are. C'mon or I'll leave you behind."

"I'm coming," she shouted while making her way over to the girl.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The lights were out in the house when Aubrey walked through her front door. So she tried to be as quiet as possible – closing the front door so it didn't make any noise. Once the door was locked she began her trip upstairs where she realized that her Aunt and Uncle weren't asleep already. As she silently walked up the steps and neared the top their voices got louder as if the couple was arguing. Aubrey didn't want to disturb anything, but she knew she had to let them know she was home. So she crept down the hallway and rose her hand to knock on their bedroom door when a piece of their conversation caught her attention.

"-Gen we can't keep this from her any longer. This town is becoming populated with all sorts of creatures." That was her uncle's voice and she heard Gen let out an exasperated sigh.

"If she knew the truth about all of this then who's to say it will keep her any safer than not knowing. She could be pushed right in the center of all this madness. Aubrey doesn't need that now. It's barely been over a year since she lost both of them."

Aubrey's heart picked up for what felt like the hundredth time that night as she stared the closed door.

"And her father wanted to tell her about everything after her mother's death, but he never got the chance," Finn continued, "We should at least grant him that. Let his daughter know even if she doesn't become a Hunter, which I doubt she will, but at least she'll know the purpose of all the training. She could also know what dangers to fight against."

"I'll tell her everything regarding the supernatural when she is emotionally ready to handle it. Now is just not the time. She is just starting to break down the walls she built up ages ago."

"Okay, but I'm fairly sure that these animal attacks aren't real animal attacks. Rabid werewolf seems like the right assumption and she needs to know before it gets her killed."

"Finn," Gen all but shouted, causing her voice to echo through the quiet house. "She has been trained, even if she doesn't know it. She doesn't have to worry about anything right now. Not werewolves or hunters. Please drop it before she gets home and hears any of this."

With that, Aubrey immediately rushed back over to the stairs and flew down the steps as silently as possible. At this rate she could not let them know she was home yet. She went back to the front door and ever so carefully unlocked it and slipped back out into the cold air of the night. Adrenaline was pumping through her as she went down the front porch steps and to the garage door. I have to give them like twenty minutes before I go back in and let them know I'm home, she thought to herself as she slid down the door, maybe they were just playing a practical joke and knew I was there the whole time.

For the next twenty or so minutes, Aubrey was trying to think of logical explanations for what she overheard, but she came up with nothing. A shiver went down her spine and she checked her phone. It had been long enough, so she went back and opened the door rather loudly. After locking it again she made it clear she was coming up the stairs. Their bedroom light was still on, but their voices were low enough she couldn't hear them talking, if they even were. Aubrey knocked on their door, pushed it open, and was greeted by Gen's smiling face as she flipped through tv channels and Finn was folding clothes.

"Hey," Aubrey said, "Just wanted to let you guys know I got back from the lacrosse game."

"How was it," Finn asked.

"Pretty good. We won, mostly thanks to Scott who pulled out the last few shots. It got intense," before they could say anything, Aubrey yawned.

"Alright kiddo. Why don't you get to bed and we'll talk more in the morning," Finn told her with a slight chuckle.

Aubrey nodded in agreement, "Good idea. Goodnight." She shut the door and raced to her bedroom. She flopped onto her bed, not even bothering to change in the moment, as she pulled out her laptop. There was no way supernatural creatures were real, she thought once more, it had to be a joke.

Although as she searched the deep web about werewolves some things did make sense. On one page she looked at she got a good idea about some possible powers: quick reflexes, enhanced hearing, smell, and sight. They shifted on the full moon which increased blood lust. The big thing was that they were talking about creatures being a bigger problem than it had been, so maybe a werewolf was turning people. That was ridiculous though because that would mean she believed in the supernatural which was definitely not the case. But as her thoughts drifted, Aubrey couldn't help but think of Derek's possible glowing eyes or his threat about knowing something. Yet a bigger concern popped into her head right after those thoughts. Someone she knew had miraculously gotten extremely good at lacrosse, no longer needed an inhaler like last year, and even looked like he was listening in on conversations he couldn't possibly hear. Was it possible that Scott McCall could be a werewolf?


	4. Chapter Four

It was safe to say that Aubrey would be extremely tired for the school day. She had spent the rest of Saturday night, all of Sunday, and Sunday night trying to figure out all she could about werewolves. Although she was still having a hard time believing it was actually real, but while she did the research and tried to recall all of the odd behavior of Scott, Stiles, and Derek it all came together slowly. She even ventured out and found information on other supernatural creatures from vampires to kitsune to mermaids or any variation in between. Yet the whole idea of these things being real was still extremely ridiculous; she even felt silly putting the idea of Scott being a werewolf in her head. He had to be perfectly normal; just a guy that trained super hard for lacrosse, got a better treatment plan for his asthma, and just very into Allison – staring at her a lot because he was a love sick puppy.

The entire situation was becoming surreal which, combined with her sleep deprived state, is what led her to come up with a stupid plan that she was going to use today around the boys. In all honesty, she didn’t know if it would even work or if they would notice, but no harm no foul. Besides even if they did notice they would probably just brush it off, like she should be doing with this whole situation. After all it was just some joke she didn’t know the punchline to.

Aubrey inwardly groaned at herself for thinking all this as she made her way into the kitchen for a quick breakfast before she had to get to school. Gen was sitting, drinking coffee, and waiting for her untimely niece as she made her breakfast.

“So your uncle and I were thinking.” Aubrey’s motions faltered for a second. She was so screwed, they had realized she had heard their conversation. Or maybe she was coming clean with it all being a big joke, God she hoped so. “We should get you a car, so you can have a little extra freedom to hang out with your friends.”

Aubrey laughed shakily, “Is that your subtle way to tell me to get out of the house more often?”

“You got me,” Gen smiled, “we were thinking about this silver Honda that should be a pretty good size for you and a good first car.”

Aubrey finished up her piece of toast before facing her Aunt, “That sounds perfect Gen. How much does it cost?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We want this to be a gift from us to you.” Gen waved her hand dismissively, rising from the table to get her car keys.

Aubrey pouted while she slung her bag over her shoulder, grabbed the slice of toast, and the two made their way to the car, “But I’ll feel bad. You guys have already done so much for me since taking me in. I should at least buy my car.”

“Sweetie it’s okay,” Gen said with a finality in her voice that stopped any other argument Aubrey could make – at least for the moment.

Both girls went silent for the rest of the drive, just listening to the morning talk show on the radio as Aubrey ate her food. But when Gen pulled up to the school, Aubrey was fairly fast at getting out, bidding her aunt goodbye, and moving to the entrance. She had just spotted the two people she needed to talk to enter the school. Well not talk to, more like gather information to dissuade her crazy theory and ease her nerves. Picking up her pace allowed her to be almost upon the two boys, but both seemed to be in deep conversation. She adjusted the lycanthropy books in her arms enough so that they might catch their attention when she spoke to them. It was a simple trick to see how they would react or what they would say or if they would pass the books off as non-important.

“- a dream where I woke up like that,” she heard Scott mutter.

“Really? I have. Usually ends a little differently,” Stiles replied with a ghost of a smile.

Aubrey snorted by accident which made both boys turn around and look down at her. Stiles cheeks flushed and turned a shade of red. “Wow. I’m afraid about the conversation I just walked into,” Aubrey commented as she held a small look of playful horror on her face. “I’ll just talk to you guys later than.”

She made to turn, almost happy that she avoided putting her poor plan into motion, but Scott pulled her back before she could get far, “Sorry about that.” He then directed his attention back to Stiles, “A, I meant I’d never had a dream that real. And B, never give me that much detail about you in bed again.”

Stiles’ face was losing its red tint as he muttered out a ‘noted.’

“Hey Aubrey have you heard from Allison today.” Scott had worry laced in his voice.

She shifted her body slightly and put the books more into view – going along with the plan since she had nothing to lose at this point. “Um not since Saturday, why? Nervous for your date?”

“Kind of.”

“What are you reading,” Stiles blurted out, no longer looking at Scott or her, but the books she was holding. She smirked inwardly, pleased that the books had manipulated the conversation the way she had hoped originally.

“Oh, I just found some new books to read at the library. With the animal attack these books caught my eye while I was browsing. They’re all about lycanthropy; you know, the study of a person turning into a wolf. It almost seems real,” she came across as nonchalant about the entire topic as both boys had curious stares. “They even have a few articles in here about similar attacks. It almost makes me think werewolves are the cause of all of this.”

Their faces paled a little and she knew they knew something about it. Or they just know about the famous story, her brain reasoned as Aubrey could feel the bags under her eyes get heavier. “Anyway, I should probably go grab my chemistry book before class. I’ll see you both around,” she smiled and she felt herself wink before she booked it away from them and towards the other building where her locker was.

Pushing open the side doors had her halting in her tracks though, as a blood covered bus filled her vision which cured her tiredness almost instantly. Aubrey’s mouth opened in shock as she took in everything, from the blood to the odd claw marks that were bigger than any natural animal. She spotted Finn, but did not have the stomach to ask what happened. Instead she regained her ability to move and went to her locker as planned, trying to block out the horrific images flashing in her head.

After exchanging her lycanthropy books for her chemistry one, she was on her way to Harris’ class. Well she was until she actually bumped into Stiles. He was caught off guard and looked like he was going to say something until the principal came over the intercoms to announce classes would go as normal while police worked. She smiled and walked ahead of him, into class.

Aubrey took her seat near the back of the class and watched as Stiles and Scott engaged in quiet conversation once class began. Well, not entirely quiet after a while.

“-ught a rabbit or something.”

“And did what?” Scott asked with clear disgust.

“Ate it,” Stiles stated simply as if it was obvious.

“Raw?”

“No, you stopped to bake it in a little werewolf oven,” was Stiles’ sarcastic remark, “I don’t know you’re the one who can’t remember anything.”

Their conversation was abruptly ended before more could be said as Harris outed them in front of the whole class. “Mr. Stilinski, if that is your idea of a hushed whisper you might want to pull out the headphones every once in a while. Perhaps you and Mr. McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?”

“No,” Stiles whined as Harris pointed for him to move to one side of the room and Scott to the other. Aubrey removed her bag from the stool next to her and Stiles plopped down into the newly vacant seat.

“Smooth move Stilinski,” Aubrey whispered with amusement which earned her an eye roll and Stiles sticking his tongue out at her.

Barely two minutes passed when another student noticed movement from outside and loudly declared that the police found something. Correction, once everyone looked outside, it was actually someone they found. A man that looked to have claw marks all along his body as well as dried blood. It made her want to throw up, so Aubrey backed away from the window and muttered to Scott and Stiles, who were close by, “I don’t think that’s a rabbit.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hey Lydia,” Aubrey said casually as Lydia interlinked their arms together before guiding her towards the cafeteria. Her strawberry blonde friend was a much needed distraction from the eventful day she was having and it was barely noon.

“Hey Bre. So the group is going to be sitting with Scott and his friend today.”

They hopped in line next to Allison as Aubrey furrowed her eyebrows and Lydia dropped her arm down to her side. “Any reason why?”

“Allison has been bugging me non-stop about wanting to spend time with her not-boyfriend. And today is the day it happens.”

“Oh,” Aubrey nodded her head in understanding as she turned her attention to her dark haired friend, “So are you going to make it official after tomorrow?”

Allison shuffled anxiously, “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m afraid he won’t jump at the opportunity to ask me.”

The trio got their lunch trays and moved out of line to wait for the other members of their party. “Well, you just ask then,” Aubrey concluded as the girls were joined by Danny and another lacrosse jock, Kyle she thinks. Lydia grew impatient in the few minutes they were waiting for Jackson; soon she gave up and led the way to Scott’s table. When they got there, Lydia took the liberty of sitting on Scott’s left, Allison on his right. Kyle sat down at the head of the table, Danny on Stiles’ right, and Aubrey found her place on Stiles’ left.

“Figure what out,” Lydia butted into whatever conversation the two boys were having before being surrounded.

“Ah, uh, homework,” Stiles replied shakily as all the ‘popular people’ settled down. “Why is she sitting with us.” He had directed his attention to his friend across the table who only shrugged in response.

“Nervous Stilinski,” Aubrey whispered with a short lived chuckle.

“Not at all. Totally cool and not nervous over here.” He sat back and crossed his arms to try and give off the aura of being cool and collected.

“Yeah, I can see that. Super suave and cool,” Aubrey grinned as she took a bite of her apple.

“Get up,” Jackson demanded Kyle, finally deciding to make an appearance which caused the other boy to huff in annoyance and roll his eyes.

“How come you never ask Danny to get up?”

“Cause I don’t stare at his girlfriend’s coin slot,” Danny retorted, causing Aubrey’s lips to pull up in amusement.

Once Kyle moved out of the seat, Jackson slumped into the chair and got comfortable before another conversation started up, “So I heard it’s some sort of animal attack.”

“Probably cougar.”

“I heard mountain lion.”

Lydia rolled her eyes before correcting her boyfriend, “A cougar is a mountain lion.” She realized she messed up immediately and turned to look down the table at anyone other than Jackson, “Isn’t it?”

Aubrey cringed slightly at that before she nodded her head in confirmation to her friend’s question. After getting to know her over the last few weeks it was unfortunate to see her dumb herself down from some thick head jock that didn’t treat her right.

“The guy’s probably some homeless tweaker who’s going to die anyway.”

“Actually,” Stiles spoke up while pulling his phone out for everyone to see, “I just found out who it is. Check it out.”

A video played explaining that the man was Garrison Meyers and he had survived the attack, but that brought Aubrey back to their chemistry class. He did not look to be in good shape then. As morbid as it was, personally Aubrey did not think the man would survive the week because the damage looked too severe. Whatever it was wanted Meyers dead or close enough to death to send a message or something. At this point, Aubrey had a subconscious thought that told her it wasn’t whatever, but it was likely a werewolf. Any other animal would have gone for the throat for an instant kill and then feasted away, yet the marks she had seen on that man looked deliberate and one final blow would have killed him. Nope, nope, nope, Aubrey scolded herself, werewolves are not real because that would mean reality wasn’t reality and she would have entered a supernatural world and that simply couldn’t be possible.

While coming out of her thoughts she caught the tail end of the table’s conversation, specifically what Scott was saying, “-he was the driver.”

“Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please,” Lydia pleaded, not even having touched her food. “Like, oh, where are we going tomorrow night?”

Attention was now placed on Allison as her black haired friend almost choked on the piece of apple she just took a bite of. Allison gave a confused ‘what’ in response which caused Lydia to roll her eyes. Aubrey coughed to try and clear her throat while also keeping quiet to hear what the girl was going to say.

“You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right Allison?”

“Um, we were thinking of what we were going to do.”

“Well I am not sitting at home again watching another lacrosse video, so if the four of us are hanging out we are doing something fun.”

Oh god, Lydia please use that big brain of yours and take the hint they are going on a date, Aubrey pleaded in her head even though it would change nothing.

“Hanging out? Like, the four of us? Do you wanna hang out, like us and them,” Scott croaked out in disbelief.

“Yeah, I guess,” Allison replies awkwardly, trying not to be rude or jeopardize her friendship with Lydia by denying the girl, “Sounds fun.”

“You know what else sounds fun,” Jackson pitched in while dramatically fiddling with his fork, “Stabbing myself in the face with this fork.”

“That does sound much better. Bet you don’t have the balls to do it,” Aubrey egged on, quickly growing tired of Jackson and his seemingly amplified pain in the ass personality. Jackson only sneered at her as she raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to either do it or wimp out. His hand twitched a bit before Lydia ruined her fun by taking the fork from him before he could do any harm.

“How about bowling,” she suggested, “You love to bowl.”

Jackson broke his gaze with Aubrey, “Yeah with actual competition.”

“How do you know we’re not actual competition,” Allison challenged. “You can bowl, right,” she turned to Scott who seemed uneasy with the concept of bowling.

“Sort of.”

“Is it a sort of or a yes, McCall,” Jackson asked with venom strong in his voice.

“Yes. In fact, I’m a great bowler.”

Aubrey noticed Stiles start to shake his head and get a flabbergasted look on his face. She would have whispered something to him if it wasn’t for Lydia putting the tables attention on her now with a simple statement, “You should come to Aubrey, you know, so you don’t feel left out.”

Aubrey froze and she could feel Stiles tense a little next to her. “Oh, you know Lyds I would, l would love to do that, but I really don’t want to be the fifth wheel.”

“Okay. Then bring someone. You’re hot enough to get any guy at this school.” Lydia had a wicked glint in her eye, but she hid it in a flash giving her friend a sickly sweet smile.

“Lydia, I’m okay not going. Besides I suck at bowling anyway.”

Lydia almost huffed, “Fine you can stay home for the ump teenth time this month and do whatever.”

Aubrey gave her friend a nod as she bit her lip to keep from saying anything sarcastic or rude back. She went back to eating her food and let Danny change the subject to something less about death or romance. Yet as the conversation changed, she could still feel Stiles steal glances at her for the rest of the lunch period.

It was also painfully obvious the remainder of the day, as both Scott and Stiles kept an eye on her, that they knew she knew something or they were close to figuring out she knew. It was hard to tell with those two though. So as the final bell rang, she bit the bullet and decided to improvise her haphazard plan and figure out if they were involved in this mess. She had to find them first though then try to get information out of them. God, she thought, it sounds like I’m crazy: interrogating two, basically, strangers into giving her information on supernatural creatures. What is wrong with me? I should just drop it and go home like a sane person would do in this situation.

However, as she walked down the hallway she had to give it to herself for having a knack for perfect timing. Almost at the end were Scott and Stiles, soon just Stiles as Scott rocketed forward and out the doors while Stiles was left calling after him.

“Am I attractive to gay guys? You didn’t answer my question.”

Aubrey’s eyes widened slightly in amusement as she came up behind the unsuspecting boy, “Wow I didn’t know you were swinging for the other team Stiles.”

He jumped, per usual every time they interacted, and flailed his arms. “Would you stop that? I’m going to have to start putting a bell on you.” He caught his breath from the shock. “And I’m not swinging for the other team. I was just curious is all because I don’t think Danny likes me, maybe it’s just that I’m not attractive enough for him to like me or-“

“I think that’s just Danny. It has nothing to do with your attractiveness,” Aubrey cut him off with a smile as the two began walking towards the school exit. She pulled out her phone and sent a hurried text to Lydia that she didn’t need a ride home and she could leave without her. She sucked in a breath and let out a sigh, putting her phone away.

“Hey Stiles, Lydia already left without me. Can I, uh, catch a ride home with you? I mean if that’s okay with you. I wouldn’t want to make you go out of your way. And if you’re busy that’s fine too.”

Stiles flustered a bit, “No, no. That is totally fine. I have nothing to do. I would go out of my way to help you. Wait – I mean – I needed to talk to you anyway.”

He led the way to his blue Jeep and Aubrey thanked him while laughing a little at his nervousness. She got into his passenger’s seat as he started the car and pealed out of the parking lot. “I live about a block from Lydia’s. I can guide you from there since I think you know where that is.”

“Yeah. Okay, cool.” His reply was curt and unnatural for him. As she glanced his way he seemed to be stiff and on guard.

“So what did you need to talk to me about,” she asked, remembering his comment. Stiles didn’t answer, but slammed on the breaks rather hard as they came up to a stop sign. It jerked both of them forward, Aubrey more so since she did not expect the sudden stop.

“Right. That, um,” the car started to move once again, “Scott and I – well more me than Scott – have been wondering about you.”

“About me?”

“Yeah, uh, you have changed a lot since last year. Not that that’s a bad thing. Just is there any reason for that,” Stiles was trying to be subtle to see if she knew anything. She could see right through the seemingly harmless questions though.

“Oh you mean changed like Scott has,” she replied nonchalantly. That was not the right thing to say, she figured that out real quick as Stiles jerked the car over to the side of the road rather abruptly. Aubrey’s mouth opened and she gave him a dumbfounded look as if to silently ask him what the hell he was doing.

He paid no mind to her silent questioning; he killed the engine and looked at her as Aubrey was still trying to process every action that just happened. “What?”

“What,” she asked cautiously.

“Don’t what, what me. You know what. I think you know more than what,” Stiles stumbled out.

Her brows furrowed as she tried to understand what in the hell he just blurted out. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his buzzed hair. “What do you know about Scott?”

Aubrey debated whether or not to feign like she knew nothing, but ended up settling on wanting this conversation to go quicker instead of them beating around the bush. “I know that something is off with him,” she gave.

“Off? How? Nothing is off.”

“Stiles, has anyone ever told you, you are bad at hiding things?”

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, “What exactly do you think you know?”

“I think I know a lot. Or very little depending on what it is you think we are talking about.”

“I don’t think you know what you are getting yourself into,” Stiles settled on, trying to avoid telling her anything of value. Aubrey understood completely because if the roles were reversed she would likely evade answering and deny everything too. But her persistent nature mixed with his skilled avoidance of an actual answer made for a long and difficult discussion ahead of them. 

“I think I know enough. At this rate I think so do you,” she waited for a response but when one never came she continued on, “How about this? I tell you what I think is going on and we go from there.”

He seemed to mull it over for a second and nodded hesitantly, giving her the go to start her theory. “It’s supernatural, right? It has been bugging me for days and I don’t think I’ve slept much, or at all. I’m basically running on adrenaline. Anyway, I just need to know if it’s true, or if my family is just messing with me, or if I’m just going crazy for starting to believe it might actually be real.”

Stiles tapped his fingers against the steering wheel and refused to meet Aubrey’s gaze as she was trying to look for anything to help her understand. He just stared out the windshield, stuck in his head. She began tapping her fingers, as well, on her thigh as she waited for any kind of response. Deep down she was conflicted on what kind of response she wanted to hear from him: ‘that’s absolutely ridiculous, of course it’s a joke, the supernatural doesn’t exist’ or ‘that was spot on, welcome to Beacon Hills where we have horrific monsters roaming the forest.’

Instead of waiting any longer for an answer she relaxed into the seat, leaned her head against the head rest, and closed her eyes. “Oh god. That just sounded totally bazaar. I’m sorry, I’ll just get out and call Allison or Lydia or even Jackson to come pick me up. I- God sorry.”

She opened her eyes and made to get out of the jeep, but Stiles grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. He held onto it as she looked at him. He closed his eye briefly and she heard him mutter something about not believing he was doing this. “It wasn’t bazaar. I don’t know how in the hell you found out. I though Scott and I were better at keeping secrets than this, but that’s not the case apparently. How- how much do you know?”

“Depends. Are you going to add anything to what I tell you?”

“You just like making things a lot more difficult than they should be, don’t you Douglas,” Stiles relaxed a bit and removed his jittery hand from the steering wheel. In turn causing Aubrey to look at the hand that he still held, she didn’t remove it though – appreciating the comfort it gave her.

“Alright. Werewolves and hunters, I think they were called,” Aubrey offered, “That’s it. But I still don’t want to believe, but the way you reacted this morning and this conversation don’t help my situation.”

Stiles looked around and tried to think of an appropriate response, “Of course you have to be so smart, but you’re right. I had suspicions and then you winked which threw me completely; I didn’t – I thought you knew and were just trying to tell us you could help. No, instead you were doubtful and I just admitted it being real right now.”

The two fell into silence, not knowing what else to say. Well she didn’t, Stiles couldn’t sit still because it seemed like his mind was going a mile a minute with questions. After a few minutes he finally burst, curiosity too strong for him. “How did you find out if Scott never did anything? Because we try not to talk to loud about it.”

“Well,” she felt like she owed him an explanation because she dragged herself into this when she could have just forgotten about the whole conversation and gone about her life blissfully unaware of the dangerous creatures roaming the earth. “I overheard a conversation about it from someone else. I had my doubts, of course you know that already. But then I started basic research and that led me down a rabbit hole of information on the supernatural. I couldn’t get it out of my head and then I thought of you and Scott and Derek Hale – you’re odd behaviors. How you both have been acting more skittish than normal. Then I also overhear some of your conversations like in Chemistry. So I-”

“You put the pieces together about Scott,” Stiles finished for her, putting the pieces together himself. As he thought it all over he told her, “Well you can still avoid the madness of it all. After all, I’m the only one who knows you know. You should walk away, before you get-“

He cut himself off this time as Aubrey looked at him. She held his gaze and noticed how the light gave his eyes an aura of calmness. It seemed to ground her back into world and give her a sense of composure about everything. He broke his gaze with her and started the car once more without finishing what he was going to say. When it was safe, he got back on the main road and began driving back to her house.

“Stiles, you know about hunters,” Aubrey spoke up, “They hunt werewolves, right? And kill them?”

Stiles’ hands tightened on the wheel, “Yeah. The Argent’s are hunters and they will be after Scott once they realize he is the beta they are looking for.”

That was just great, she inwardly groaned, her dad was a hunter that was out to get werewolves and now so were her friend’s family. It made sense actually, though, why he never took her on his hunting trips, why he was gone for more days than average hunters, and why he came back with, typically, one deer while saying he saw a lot of action. All of the training, self-defense classes, the gymnastics – it was all becoming clear. Even the harmless offer by Mr. Argent at the game was fitting into the puzzle. They were hunting buddies after all, so it would make sense for him to want to train the daughter of one of his close friends that could no longer do it. She was probably supposed to take after her father and kill werewolves. Kill people. Although, now she’s guessing he didn’t really see them as people, but monsters. But Scott couldn’t be a monster, she knew him – not well, but still. A sweet kid like Scott couldn’t be a killer, a monster that would warrant others to want to him dead.

Stiles hit a pot hole and it brought her back to reality. “Stiles. I don’t think I can just walk away from this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m already too deep into this for me to just walk away,” Aubrey sort of clarified – preparing herself. “My dad was a hunter I think and, wow, I have been trained to take on his line of work. Which means I’m supposed to be a hunter.”

Stiles was still driving on the back road, around the woods, and pulled over once more, without as much swiftness as before. They pulled off to the side near the one of the preserve entrances. She heard him mumble, “Well this just got a bit more complicated.” Aubrey couldn’t help but agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions I would love to hear them.   
> ~~Starstruck


	5. Chapter Five

"What is she doing here," Scott hissed to his best friend as he got into the jeep. Stiles and Aubrey had spent hours sitting in the car talking about the supernatural. He told her everything he knew about werewolves, including Derek Hale, and she shared information she found on other creatures that could be real as well. It was a strange interaction, but it helped create a bond between the two. Plus it helped distract Aubrey from the inevitable thoughts of the Argents and her father – whom she was starting to change her mind set about. To her it seemed wrong to think differently about someone who was dead and couldn't change their ways, yet it was becoming increasingly difficult to grasp the fact he had killed and had secretly trained her to kill. It was mind boggling to say the least, especially when he was a great father and she had a deep connection with him only to find out he was a killer. Now she was even beginning to question if her mom was a part of all this too or if she had no idea that the man she loved was dangerous. 

One of the worse parts was that one of her closest friend's probably knew about everything from werewolves to the hunting profession. For all Aubrey knew, Allison was already out their hunting alongside her father and mother. Another thought that scared her was that they must have a reason for doing it and it could already be inside her head just waiting for that one moment when she too would break and begin to hunt. Of course she didn't share any of these dark thoughts with Stiles during their talk and it was already too late to when he got the call from Scott to pick him up from the old Hale house. 

"Hello to you too, Scott," she muttered as she leaned forward from the backseat to get a better view of the boy.

Stiles adverted his friend's eye as he continued to drive, "Ah, she's just hanging out."

"Just hanging out? When I told you what we were doing, you decided to bring a friend," Scott let out in an angry whisper like she wasn't there and couldn't hear every word he was saying.

"Fine. She, um, figured it out," Stiles admitted. Scott had a dumb founded look as he looked back at Aubrey. For a few seconds it seemed like he was lost on what they were talking about and then it all seemed to click for him when he realized she knew about werewolves. More specifically, that he was one. 

"How did you figure it out?"

"I'm a master detective of the supernatural, Scott. It is my job to know about all things magical and take care of it," Aubrey deadpanned, not breaking eye contact which caused Scott to pale a little. The sad truth was that she wasn't exaggerating that much.

Stiles chuckled a little as he relaxed in the driver's seat and looked at her in the rearview mirror, "Really, Douglas? That's what you go with. Out of all the things you could have said."

"Stilinski, you have no place to judge me," Aubrey grinned at her new friend before putting her attention back on Scott, "I'll tell you the whole story. Just know your best friend did not out your secret. I figured it out and I won't say anything. To be honest I still can't believe it's real."

"It's real alright," Scott sighed, turning back around as Stiles ripped down the road. They pulled up to the school, near the back lot where all the buses are parked. Stiles had kind of filled Aubrey in on what was going on – Scott was going to try and remember what happened to the bus driver thanks to information from Derek. She wasn't entirely sure about this plan because she did not trust Derek at all and from their conversation neither did Stiles. She just received bad vibes from him, in all their short interactions; it was almost as if she could feel the doom that surrounded him. 

Both boys got out of the car and walked over to the locked fence of the bus lot. She just watched their interaction as they seemingly argued before Stiles made to climb the fence. Scott stopped him though, and Stiles gave up and walked back over to the car grumpily.

"Everything okay?"

"Fine," he replied with slight irritation in his tone as he slammed the door behind him. Aubrey fell back against the seat and dropped it even though she didn't believe him in the slightest. She understood though that sometimes you just need space. A few minutes pass before Stiles lets out a sigh. "Sorry. It just sucks being Robin all the time while Scott is out there being Batman."

"Well, let Scott play Batman then and you can play a different hero," Aubrey suggested wearily.

"Like who?"

"Well," she tried to think of other DC heroes that he could be, but nothing came to mind. Well nothing from DC anyway. "You can be Spiderman."

Stiles let out a laugh and turned around to face her. "You do realize they are from different franchises, right?"

"I'm aware," she smirked at him, "Personally, though, I like Spiderman a bit more. Besides you have a lot more in common with Spiderman than Batman."

A small tint of red makes its way onto Stiles' cheeks, but it went unnoticed by Aubrey as she was focused on the light that was peeking out behind the bus Scott was on. 

"Horn, Stiles, horn."

He quickly moved forward, saw what she did, and laid his hand on the horn multiple times before Scott vaulted clear over the fence. He then got in the car at lightning speed and demanded Stiles go. Stiles reversed it out of the area and was able to rotate the car before flipping it into drive and going back down the road at top speed. Aubrey's heart was pounding from adrenaline even though she did nothing that important, it was still nerve racking none the less. That little trick performed by Scott also diminished a small part of her that still didn't believe because by all logic he could not have jumped that without a supernatural boost. 

"Did it work? Did you remember," Stiles questioned once the trio was far away from that school.

"Yeah, I was there last night. And the blood, a lot of it was mine," Scott breathes out. 

"So you attacked him and hurt yourself in the process," Aubrey guessed as she leaned forward once more. 

"No," he denied, "I saw glowing eyes in the bus, but they weren't mine. It was Derek."

"Right. Derek Hale. Who is also a wolf and now also apparently a legitimate killer. Great," Aubrey complained. 

"Did you tell her everything," Scott whined to Stiles.

"Yes and no. It was more of an exchange of information. You shouldn't be complaining so much cause now we have another person to help figure out this whole mess."

"And from the looks of it Scott, you could use all of the help you can get," Aubrey butted back into the conversation, sending a knowing look to the boy in question. 

"Back to the driver," Scott ignored her stare and changed the subject – not wanting to admit she and Stiles were right, "I think I was trying to protect him."

"So Derek wanted you to remember that he attacked the driver," Stiles asked as they made a sharp turn. Aubrey moved along with the motion and slid across the backseat while trying to catch herself before hitting the side.

"That's what I don't get."

"Maybe it's a pack thing. You know kill together to solidify a bond," Aubrey suggested.

They turned down another road as Scott made a sarcastic response, "Because ripping someone's throat out is a real bonding experience."

Stiles shook his head before giving his friend reassurance, "Yeah, but you didn't do it, which means you're not a killer. It also means-"

Scott perked up extremely fast, "-I can go out with Allison."

Stiles slowed the jeep down in front of Aubrey's house. "I was gonna say that means you aren't going to kill either of us."

"Oh yeah. That too."

Stiles nodded his head comically as he opened his door. Aubrey crawled out of the backseat and took Stiles' offered hand. Once she was solidly on the ground, she was walking to her door and Stiles followed behind. "Alright. Thank you. I know this wasn't the easiest thing to talk about, but I appreciate you filling in the blanks."

"It's n-no problem," he awkwardly said as his foot tapped on the ground lightly as the duo stopped in front of her door. "I'm sure you would've found out everything eventually. Wait, you already knew. I meant, you would have believed it sooner or later. You're a smart girl, Douglas."

"Thanks Stilinski. You're not too bad yourself."

He backed up a bit, "Does that mean we're friends now."

Aubrey contemplated it for a second, "Yeah. I think we are. I'll see you tomorrow."

She smiled at him one last time before slipping into the house. She peeked through the blinds and saw him scramble back to his car – with what looked like a dopey grin on his face, but she couldn't be sure before he and Scott were long gone down the street. Aubrey shut the blinds and wandered towards the kitchen. She glanced at the clock and her heart dropped down to her feet, Gen was going to kill her. She backed out of the kitchen and silently retreated upstairs, hoping to avoid any contact with her guardians. Yet once she reached the landing, fate played a cruel trick on her: there they both were, in their room with the door wide open, staring directly at her.

"Oh look, you finally decided to grace us with your presence," Gen announced as she exited her bedroom, gliding over to her niece. Aubrey shrunk in on herself as if she could disappear and avoid her aunt's ice cold stare.

"I know it's late. I'm sorry. I was just out with a couple of friends and we lost track of time," Aubrey pleaded her case before they jumped to conclusions.

"And who was it you were with," Finn joined the conversation, more relaxed than Gen. 

"New friends. Scott and Stiles."

"Oh, Stilinski's boy. He's a trouble maker, you know."

Oh boy, did she know and she's only really talked to him since the beginning of the year. Granted they did talk a few times freshman year, but that wasn't Aubrey's best year so it's mostly a blurred memory. She barely talked to anyone and sat alone at lunch most days, well not alone-alone, she had sat at a table with a kid named Boyd. He never wanted to make conversation, though, and she wasn't in the best mindset so it worked. Neither of them had to deal with the embarrassment of sitting alone, with no friends, at lunch. With that randomly in her mind she put it on her to do list to talk to him later, maybe even sit with him, as well as talk to the other people she associated with last year.

"Yeah, so I've heard," Aubrey said casually.

Gen sighed, "We really should ground you or punish you in some way since there is a police enforced curfew and your Uncle happens to be a Deputy of the Sheriff's department. But I'll let it slide this one time. Just don't make a habit out of disappearing for hours without letting us know you'll be out late, okay sweetie?"

"I'll try. But with how overwhelmingly popular I am now that might be a little hard," she joked lightly, hoping to ease the tension – although she wanted to make a comment about how she was the one who encouraged her to get out of the house more. Instead she flipped her hair over her shoulder for extra emphasis which caused Gen to roll her eyes and send her niece to her room.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Aubrey was lying on Allison's bed as Lydia rummaged through everything to try and find the perfect outfit for their double date. She gazed up at the white ceiling before complaining, "Why am I here again? I'm not going with you guys to the bowling alley."

"You could change your mind. You could even bring Scott's twitchy friend," Lydia bargained for the fourth time that evening.

"Mm pass," Aubrey mimicked what Lydia had been saying to every piece of clothing Allison seemed to own. Lydia huffed and threw one of Allison's pillows at her as the door to Allison's room opened. Her father walked in whilst trying to put on his jacket.

"Dad, hello?" Allison said as she lowered the black sparkly top Lydia had picked out for her only moments ago. 

Realization seemed to dawn on him and Aubrey flipped over onto her stomach to watch the scene unfold. Lydia also took that opportunity to fall dramatically next to her on the bed and get into a strange position, like she was trying to seduce him. Aubrey shook her head at her friend's antics.

"Hi Mr. Argent," Lydia said, but he didn't even acknowledge her as Allison butted in, a little on edge.

"Dad, do you need something?"

He nodded, "I wanted to tell you, you'll be staying in tonight."

"What? I'm going out with my friends."

"Not when some animal is out there attacking people," he reasoned which reminded Aubrey that he was a hunter who knew exactly what kind of creature was out there. That Derek was out there. "It's out of my hands. There's a curfew. No one's allowed out passed 9:30."

Allison threw her top onto the bed as her father made his way out of the room, closing the door right behind him. Lydia got up from her position and Aubrey sat up straight. Lydia walked right up next to her brunette friend and pursed her lips, "Someone's daddy's little girl."

"Sometimes, but not tonight," Allison declared. 

"Oh, is our sweet Allison rebelling," Aubrey asked, surprised.

She smirked at Aubrey, pushed open her window, and climbed onto the roof. Her two friends barely made it to the window before Allison did a front flip off the roof into the bushes below, "Eight years of gymnastics," she whispered up to them. "You guys coming?"

"Oh man, I would love too," Aubrey remarked, ready to climb onto the roof, "I haven't done anything like this in, like, a year."

"Right," Lydia butted in, grabbing Aubrey before she could climb out the window, "But we'll take the stairs, make it less conspicuous." The strawberry blonde pulled Aubrey away from the window, in case she made any attempt to join their other friend.

"Must you ruin all the fun Queen Bee," Aubrey complained.

"If we want to make sneaking out more believable, than yes buzz kill," Lydia hissed back as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. She grabbed her purse and pulled Aubrey out of Allison's room and down the stairs, barely giving the girl enough time to collect her own bag. Once on the first floor, they bid goodbye to Mrs. Argent whom was lounging on one of the sofas in the living room. The older women also took the opportunity to give Aubrey a suspicious look, but if she had anything to say she held her tongue since they were in the company with someone else. For that, Aubrey was thankful because she didn't have to answer any questions that would pertain to the topic of her parents or hunters. 

Outside, they hastily ushered Allison to Lydia's car before one of her parents saw her wandering about in the front yard. Aubrey's phone chimed at the perfect moment with a text from Stiles as her two friends got into the car. She had texted him earlier in the day with a plan for tonight while their friends went on a sure to be awkward and disastrous double date. 'Ready when you are,' the text read. She smiled a little and looked down the driveway to see his signature blue jeep parked at the end, on the road. 

Lydia rolled down her window and gave Aubrey a look that said 'what are you waiting for, get in.' "Sorry, Stiles is here. Have fun on your date," Aubrey gave them an innocent look before waving them goodnight. Lydia gave her dark haired friend an eye roll before rolling up her window; not even bothering with a goodbye. Aubrey didn't mind all that much though, that was just Lydia being Lydia. She casually walked away from the car, but once mostly out of sight from Lydia's mirrors, Aubrey ran the rest of the way to the jeep. She pulled open the door and was met with a smile from Stiles.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"Okay," he pulled away from the driveway and started down the road, "So I was thinking. For our first hang out as actual friends we should watch a movie, like, I don't know, Star Wars."

"Mm, I don't know. You know I hear from Lydia that the Notebook is a pretty good movie," she grinned cheekily at Stiles as his face twisted in disgust. 

"Please tell me that is a joke. I don't think I could even stomach that movie."

She rolled her eyes, "Of course. Star Wars should be fine." She drew up her small bag she brought with her and pulled out popcorn, twizzlers, and whoopers. "I brought some snacks as promised." 

"This should be epic," Stiles commented as he made a turn onto a neighborhood road, "Scott and I haven't done this since he got so caught up with Allison and being a werewolf, so this should be nice. Relaxing and not worrying about werewolf stuff."

"I thought you liked werewolf stuff," she narrowed her eyes playfully at him as he pulled into his driveway. 

He faced her, "Oh I totally do. I mean they were only legends a month ago. Now my best friend is one. This is pretty cool. I mean except for Derek, or the hunters, but other than that, totally cool." 

She followed his lead and got out of the car as he picked up his pace to open the door. He pushed it open and gestured for Aubrey to go inside, she did and he trailed after her while flipping on the lights to the house. That quickly changed the dark living room into one of comfort. The walls were a soothing light yellow and pictures were scattered along all the walls and the mantel above the fireplace. While Stiles took off his shoes and moved to the television, Aubrey walked close to the walls to look at all the photos. She saw plenty of Stiles when he was younger, but what caught her eye was one with him, his father, and his mother all in the picture. It was a charming photo; they were all smiling while outside on a picnic blanket and when she looked closer she could see a boy in the background with his mother – the boy being very similar to Scott. 

She caught herself smiling at the picture as a presence appeared behind her. "That's my mom. A beautiful women, always kind to everyone," Stiles said in a quiet voice. She glanced up behind her and saw a small sad smile on his face as he looked at his mother. 

"You have her smile," Aubrey commented, looking back at the photo. The two lapsed into silence for a second before Aubrey moved away from the picture and to the couch. She placed her bag onto the coffee table and pulled out the snacks, scattering them amongst the table space. Stiles soon joined her and plucked up the popcorn bag before disappearing into the kitchen. 

This would be nice, like Stiles said. She didn't have to spend the evening alone and she could get to know him more – well more than she had the night they exchanged information on werewolves until Scott called. 

The microwave went off and she could hear Stiles' hiss in pain before he walked in with a popcorn bowl. She shook her head at him, knowing he had burned himself on the popcorn bag while taking it out. He chose to ignore her judgment and plopped down next to her, placing the bowl in-between them. He played the movie and about twenty minutes in footsteps echoed in the hall behind them. Aubrey strained her neck and saw only the Sheriff walk into the room. 

"Hey dad," Stiles called, not taking his eyes off the screen to even look at him. Aubrey smiled at the Sheriff. 

"Movie date," he asked as he moved closer to the couch.

Aubrey felt her cheeks warm and she saw Stiles flush, almost choking on the pieces of popcorn he crammed into his mouth. "Ah, no. We're just hanging out while Scott's on a double date," Stiles explained while patting his chest to try and catch the breath that escaped him.

"And you two didn't join. Make it a triple date," The Sheriff had a small smirk on his face as he noticed his son's reaction to the suggestion. 

"Sorry Sheriff. Your son is great, but, um, we're just friends," Aubrey clarified, not trying to be rude as she tried to get rid of her blush. She didn't want to offend Sheriff Stilinski or imply that Stiles wasn't good enough for her, he was, but they have only truly known each other for barely over a month. 

"I see," his dad replied, "I'll just be in the next room over, doing work. No funny business."

Stiles stiffened next to her as he waved his dad into the next room, "Have fun dad."

Aubrey silently snorted at the action and awkwardness that radiated off the boy next to her. He watched his dad go before turning to her, "Sorry about that. I never really bring anyone, other than Scott, over."

"Oh, so I'm the first girl you've ever brought home. I'm honored Stiles. I truly am."

He threw popcorn at her as he rolled his eyes in the darkness. Nothing more was said and they went back to a comfortable silence while the movie played on. Although she did catch him looking at her a few times while he fidgeted in his seat. He didn't bother saying anything, though.

Near the end of the film, Aubrey was taken by surprise as the phone rang in the next room over. She tried to ignore it and set aside her curiosity, but Stiles slowly rose from his spot and moved towards the room's entrance. She ended up right behind him as the two began to eavesdrop on the conversation. It was quick and they didn't really get much context except that of the Sheriff's responses. 

Once the phone was placed down on the table with a solid sound, the two teens raced each other back to the couch – trying to look as casual as possible. They made it just in time as Stiles' dad walked into the room, "Hey kiddo, it's getting late. You should probably take Aubrey home before I have to enforce the curfew on you two."

"Oh, uh, yeah. I guess it is late. We'll head out in a minute," Stiles stood and moved to his dad as Aubrey grabbed her things and shoved them into her bag – trying to clean up her mess as much and as fast as possible. 

"I'll go wait in the car Stiles," she called as she moved to the front door, bag barely making it onto her shoulder. She didn't wait for a response before she was out the door and walking to the jeep. The cold air put her on alert as she walked to his car and got in rather fast. She should really talk to him about leaving his car unlocked, especially when there were werewolves and hunters out to get him and Scott.

She sat alone with only the silence of the night around her. It was very peaceful, probably the most peaceful evening now that there were no glowing eyes or creeper werewolves watching her every move. Yet, not two minutes later since she sat down was that peace disturbed and Sheriff Stilinski was getting into his police cruiser – speeding away down the road, probably to the hospital from what she overheard. Stiles was not far behind, jumping into his own car. 

"Did you find out why he was going to the hospital?"

"Yeah, the bus driver succumbed to his wounds."

"Oh."

"So, change of plans we are going to Scott's to tell him about it," Stiles started his car and they peeled out of the Stilinski driveway, going the opposite direction his dad went.

She nodded, a little dazed by the news, and pulled out her phone to shoot a quick text to her Aunt that said she would be home a bit later because the movie ran over. Aubrey felt guilty about lying, but she had a gut feeling that this would not be the last time she lied to them. 

They pulled up to what Aubrey guessed was Scott's house not to long after she sent the text. Stiles killed the engine and made his way to the side of the McCall house. Aubrey was on his six, but quickly started to question this plan as Stiles scaled the house, using the porch and the roof to help him.

"You are crazy," she whisper shouted up at him as he sat on the roof, looking down at her with a grin.

"That depends on how you define crazy."

She squinted her eyes at him, even though he couldn't see it in the dark. She told herself to climb anyway, making it up the porch railing and grabbing onto the roof edge in quick motions. It took her a second to gain a grip, but once she did she pulled herself up onto the roof effortlessly. Stiles mouth opened a little in surprise by her strength but it closed quickly as he moved to Scott's window. He climbed in, however once Aubrey could no longer see him she heard screaming. One scream was definitely Stiles, but the other she wasn't sure. She rushed to the window, almost missing her footing which would have landed her on the ground, and looked into the room. 

A tired women with dark curls was holding a wooden bat as Stiles flailed on the bed, "Stiles what the hell are you doing here?"

"What am I doing," Stiles asked incredulity, "God, do either of you even play baseball?"

Scott chose that moment to enter the room and Aubrey decided to climb inside to join in on all the chaos. Scott's mom's attention fell on her then moved to her son, "Can you please tell your friends to use the front door?"

"But we lock the front door," Scott argued, "They wouldn't be able to get in."

"Yeah, exactly. And do any of you care about the police enforced curfew," she asked as she finally lowered the bat down to her side. Aubrey adjusted herself so she was sitting on the edge of the bed as both boys answered the question with a 'no.'

Scott's mom sighed heavily, "Well, you know what? That's enough parenting for one night. I won't even ask about the girl that seems to be in your friend group now. So, goodnight."

His mom walked out of the room and Scott closed the door behind her before turning to the two people sitting on his bed. "What?"

"My dad left for the hospital 15 minutes ago," Stiles offered.

"It's about the bus driver Scott," Aubrey added in at Stiles' brief second of silence.

"They said he succumbed to his wounds."

"Succumbed," Scott asked, like he has never heard the word before. 

"Scott, he died," Aubrey clarified for the confused boy who was now startled by this new piece of information. Stiles shared a look with her just as Scott chose to flee from the room and out the window they had entered from. 

"Where the hell is he going," Stiles asked in disbelief as he too climbed back out onto the roof just in time to see his friend disappear behind the tree line. Aubrey was right beside him seconds later.

"To Derek," she guessed with a shrug, watching the shadows of the night move around the forest line. As she watched the boy run into the night, she could have sworn she'd seen a person hidden within the darkness. A person with glowing red eyes. Damnit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a more relaxed chapter before the story picks up with the Bullet and Night School. Hope you enjoyed!  
> ~~Starstruck


	6. Chapter Six

"Scott's coming over tonight," Lydia questioned one of her best friends as the three girls ascended the stairs to the next level of the school. The girl in question had just been informing her friends that her not-boyfriend was going to be coming over to her house and she needed advice for how to handle it. The advice question had originally gone to Aubrey, but Lydia had so kindly butted in; claiming that she knew more about this topic since she had actually gone that far. Aubrey decided not to fight against it and let her fiery friend have her way.

Allison, on the other hand, was fighting against the heat on her cheeks as she defended, "We're just studying together."

Aubrey snorted a little, "Study dates never involve studying my dear Allison."

"She's right. It's like being in a hot tub, someone eventually cops a feel."

Aubrey blinked rapidly at that strange sentence before jumping in to make that statement less subtle for their innocent friend. "Or in a less weird metaphor. Make sure he uses protection if you guys go that far." She tried to word it so it wouldn't sound as inappropriate, but by the way Allison reacted it was easy to see the taller girl was uncomfortable with the topic at any capacity.

"After one date," she asked gobsmacked.

"Well you never know," Aubrey shrugged as the girls stopped at the top of the stairs, near the railing so they were sort of out of the way of passing students.

"Just give him a taste if you're so nervous," Lydia cut in once more, using her title of 'being an expert in this area.'

Both girls continued the conversation as Aubrey's attention drifted away from them and to her phone which had buzzed due to a text from Stiles. It was rushed, just saying that he had new information and could give her a ride so they could talk about it. She responded back with a variation on 'that should work' as she tuned back into what her friends were saying. Unsurprisingly she was taken aback when Lydia said something regarding phenylethylamine, a hormone that increases focused behavior. She smiled proudly at the girl; proud that she kind of broke through her public persona and let out her inner genius, even if it was only for a second.

"When's he coming over," Aubrey jumped back into the conversation.

"Right after school."

With that the bell rang to signal the end school, Aubrey bid her friends goodbye and was out of the school quicker than she had been since the beginning of school. She caught sight of Stiles sitting in his jeep waiting for her and when she got in, he reversed it out of his spot. But they barely moved ten feet before someone walked in front of the car with their hand raised in the air.

"Holy shit," Aubrey whispered as she grabbed onto the door while Stiles braked roughly to avoid hitting the person. But upon further inspection, she realized the person in question was a very ill looking Derek Hale. "You're kidding."

"This guy's everywhere," Stiles added before getting out of his car, being joined by Scott soon after. The three boys bickered back and forth while Derek was collapsed on the ground. Aubrey made to move out of the vehicle to help as well, but that's when Derek's eyes began to flash a fantastic blue color. That seemed to motivate her two friend's to help the older man up and get him to the car. Aubrey huffed and scrambled to the back seat as the passenger door opened and her hastily vacated seat was filled by Derek.

Stiles re-entered the car and rolled down the window so Derek could talk with Scott, "Find out what bullet they used. She's an Argent."

Anger seemed to bubble on Scott's surface as he asked, "Why should I?"

"Because you need me."

Aubrey's brows furrowed as she tried to remember when Derek had been helpful and not a complete stalker or potential killer. Hell, she didn't understand why they were helping him right now in the first place instead of just leaving him here. But she bit back any comment about it, putting her trust in Scott's decision – at least for now.

Scott held his gaze before he caved into the request and the honking of cars became more persistent, "Fine, I'll try. Get him out of here." Scott turned his attention to Stiles, who was sending his best friend daggers through his glare.

"I hate you so much for this," Stiles responded before driving out of the parking lot. Once they were out of view from the high school, Aubrey leaned forward in her seat so she was in between the two.

"So what happened to the big bad wolf?"

"I was shot," Derek breathed out curtly. She noticed he began to sweat even more and, now that she was closer to him, he was a lot paler than he had been last time they interacted.

"And you're not healing? I thought that was one of the perks to being a werewolf: you heal."

"They must have used a special kind of bullet that stops my body from healing. Wait how the hell do you even know about that?"

"Well, your flashing eyes are one. The fact that you kind of confirmed it with the whole 'it stops my healing' thing. I'm sure I could name more if I tried, but that is not the major concern here, now is it?"

His eyes flashed again as he stared at her and it made her skin gain goosebumps when she heard the small growl accompanied by it. However, she didn't break eye contact with him and noticed him wince right after which caused Aubrey to conclude the growl was likely from pain. She wouldn't count on it one hundred percent though.

Derek held the glare for a few more seconds before conceding and turning around. She fell back against the seat with a quiet sigh of relief as the car fell into silence. Stiles not wanting to talk about what he needed to share with her with Derek in the car, Aubrey having nothing more to say as she was thinking about things that could harm a werewolf, and Derek being, well, Derek. It was an uncomfortable quiet as the car flew down the road and onto a main street. Stiles chose to speak up shortly after that.

"Try not to bleed out on my seats, okay? We're almost there."

Derek perked up, "Almost where?"

"Your house?"

"What? You can't take me there."

Aubrey rose her right eyebrow, "He can't take you to your own home? Would you rather a hospital?"

Derek made a motion like he was going to turn around, but he thought better of it to save his energy. "Not if I can't protect myself. And if I were you I would stop making stupid suggestions."

Stiles jerked the car to a parking spot on the side of the road. "And if Scott can't find your little magic bullet, huh? What are we supposed to do then?"

"You'll make us watch you die," Aubrey added on morbidly.

Derek's face changed from its neutral scowl to an ever deepening frown as he kept his eyes on Stiles. Aubrey felt an odd sensation flow through her as she watched the interaction; she passed it off, however, as her not liking the way Derek spoke down to them as though they couldn't handle anything right. "I have a plan for it. A last resort and it'll end with me not dying."

"A last resort. Great. And what would that be," Aubrey leaned forward as Derek moved his working arm to the non-working one. He pulled up the sleeve of his leather jacket and showed both teenagers the grotesque bullet wound. It seemed to be steaming as it pulsed with purple, blue, and red colors. Stiles turned away from the wound almost immediately. Aubrey guessed it was because he has a weak stomach when it came to these things.

"Oh my god," he complained, trying to hold back puke. "What is that? You know what, you should probably just get out."

"That looks infected. I mean look at it. And the veins look poisoned. They're all black and purple. What causes werewolves blood to turn black?" Aubrey was still looking at the wound, fighting the urge to throw up herself as all the veins in his arm moved around.

"Stop talking," Derek bit out, "And you, start the car. Now."

Stiles gave the older man an exasperated look, "I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look. In fact, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead."

Derek glared right back at him, "Start the car or I'm going to rip her throat out, with my teeth."

Stiles' mouth moved in frustration as he held onto Derek's gaze before he dropped it to start the car. However, as he turned the key Aubrey's phone started to ring loudly from her bag. Lydia had forced her to wear a skirt today which thus left Aubrey with no choice but to carry her phone either in her hand or in her bag. She opted for the bag since she had a thing about talking with her hands which would lead to her flinging things by accident.

She fumbled a little with the zipper as she tried to reach the phone before it stopped ringing and on the last ring she was able to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey sweetie," the voice answered rather loudly. Aubrey pulled the phone away from her ear and read the caller id: Aunt Gen.

"Hey Gen," she corrected herself, still confused. Typically Gen never called her unless it was an important.

"Look – where are you?"

"Just hanging out with, uh, Stiles. Why? Did you need something?"

"Yes, actually. We need you come home. We were just invited to dinner tonight and you need to join us."

"Dinner," Aubrey was perplexed because she didn't know of anyone that would invite her family to a random dinner. "Who invited us to dinner?"

"Funny enough, the Argent's invited us over."

She caught both boys turn around to face her as she spoke. She knew Derek could hear everything being said, with his super hearing and all. Stiles, however, looked lost – only hearing half of the conversation.

"Apparently Kate, Allison's aunt," Gen continued, "remembered me and wanted us to stop by for dinner. So get your butt home."

"Okay, okay. I'll have Stiles drive me home right now. Bye."

She hung up the phone before her aunt could say anymore. Derek turned around, already informed on the situation. Stiles just stared at her with curious eyes. "That was Gen, she said that the Argent's want us to come over for dinner because Allison's Aunt Kate knew her back in the day. So can you drive me home?"

Stiles frowned a little, but turned around to start driving anyway which caused Derek to speak up. "The one who shot me was an Argent, like I told Scott, so while you're over there look for a bullet. I doubt Scott has found it."

Aubrey rolled her eyes, secretly agreeing with the big bad wolf, but told him she would try and find this magic bullet of his so she didn't have to worry about him dying on Stiles' watch. Derek did not look amused by the comment, but didn't bother to humor her with a response which left the rest of the ride to her house silent like before.

That was okay, though, because it gave her time to reflect over Derek's part in this little universe. She could feel a piece of the puzzle missing, which led her to once again question why Scott all of a sudden trusted this wolf man, well trusted enough to help him. Last time she was with him, he was adamantly against having anything to do with Derek and whatever he was doing here. It also didn't help that he was likely the reason Scott was now a werewolf – well according to Stiles' theory when they spoke about it. So if that was the case than what the hell were they doing helping the one that started all of this, aside from the fact they didn't want to watch someone die? She couldn't wrap her head around it, but Aubrey just added the confusing twist to the growing pile of mysteries she didn't understand.

~~~~~*~~~~~

When Aubrey had arrived at the house an hour ago, Gen had fussed at her to go clean herself up and put on a different dress that was family appropriate and would make a good impression. The women seemed extremely stressed out, yet she was trying to pass it off to her niece as it being she hadn't seen the Argent's since college. Aubrey knew better though. She knew that it was because this was one of the most prominent hunter families that, from what Aubrey gathered, Gen had given up on by not pursuing the profession. This led the girl to assume that the Argent's would make her aunt feel inferior once they stepped foot into their house, like it was a mistake not choosing the path that they did whilst also trying to push Aubrey to not make the same mistake. They would probably go about the second part secretly, though, due to the fact that Aubrey was supposed to be ignorant to the supernatural.

She shook away all of these thoughts as the door to the Argent household opened and the small family of three was greeted by Mrs. Argent. The women had on a fake smile as she invited the trio in. As soon as Aubrey crossed the threshold the air seemed to grow tense and heavy, like the family had welcomed something they did not want into their home.

Finn, Gen, and Aubrey stood in the foyer causally as Mrs. Argent closed the front door and stepped closer. "I hope you don't mind, but we have an unexpected guess joining us for dinner. If you would follow me."

The women led the way into the dining room and the question on whom the unexpected guest was, was answered. Scott was sitting awkwardly at the table, next to Allison, who looked surprised to see one of her friend's entering the room. Her eyes filled with questions, but Aubrey's attention shifted to the older blonde carrying plates to the table. It was an easy guess as to who she was: Kate Argent, the one who invited them.

Kate set down two plates in front of Scott and Allison, before turning her attention to the new group. "Well, I almost didn't think you would show." A smile was on her face as she waltzed over to Gen with open arms. She gave Gen a tight hug, still keeping a smile as she pulled away, "And this must be your husband, Finn, and your niece, Aubrey. I've heard a bit about you from Allison, but not as much as I would like. Come sit down."

Kate gestured to the table, set for eight, as Mr. Argent came into the room with two more plates in hand. He didn't say anything, though, before he disappeared into the kitchen once more.

When all of the plates were set out, Aubrey felt like she could take a short breath as she sat on Allison's left, across from Kate. The air was still very tense and being in such close proximity to Kate gave her an uneasy feeling in her gut. Something in her was just screaming at her not to trust her as the large group dined in silence. Her mind was giving her warning signs that were so loud she almost missed what the Argent in question asked her.

"So how are you liking Beacon Hills Aubrey?"

"It's a very interesting town," she responded uncertain of what to say. "Definitely a little different from what I was used to in Oregon."

"Yes, it's not like any old town on the map," Kate confirmed.

Aubrey noticed her own aunt shoot a look towards Kate before she cleared her throat. "Yep and we should know. We lived down here in between our college days. It's where I met Finn." Gen grabbed her husband's hand under the table in a warm manner.

The blonde only nodded her head along with what Gen was saying, trying to keep the conversation neutral. That opened the door for Chris Argent, however. He let out a small portion his steaming rage with Scott, for what Aubrey was unsure. "Would you like something else to drink besides water, Scott?"

"Oh, no I'm good. Thanks," Scott blurted out shyly as he picked at his food.

"We can get you some beer. A shot of tequila?"

"Dad, really," Allison cut in. Her eye twitched a little in irritation and Aubrey could see her friend was trying to keep her cool. It wasn't working.

"You don't drink Scott," Mrs. Argent asked.

"I'm not old enough too," was his response.

"Good answer," Finn joined in on the awkward conversation, "Total lie, but nice play."

It was a little bit of his Deputy humor, which would likely go unnoticed by the Argent's and Scott since Aubrey was fairly sure none of them knew that much about the Hayes family or their professions. Aside from the whole hunter ordeal. Although they might look deeper into her family after this interaction, who knows.

Kate smirked towards her uncle, "He's right. You might yet survive the night."

"You smoke pot?"

Aubrey choked on her sip of water by the abrupt question from Mr. Argent. She coughed as Kate changed the conversation to Scott's newest talent: lacrosse. That was like watching a slow train wreck as Scott tried to explain what the game was like, while having Argent interrupt him with questions and glares in his direction. Whatever had happened before this dinner must have been bad for Scott to warrant this kind of behavior; that or Allison's father was very overprotective.

"Sounds violent," Kate's head swayed as a sick smile was plastered on her face, "I like it."

"Scott's amazing too," Allison praised. "Dad and Aubrey were there for the first game. Wasn't he good?"

"He was okay," Argent replied curtly, cutting in before Aubrey could say any form of praise to get the man to stop haggling on Scott.

She slipped into the conversation anyway after the interruption, "He scored the winning shot. And before that he had made some killer shots that brought the team ahead in the first place so they could pull out a victory."

Aubrey shot Scott a kind smile and the boy seemed to slouch a little before he tensed again as Argent spoke up once more with an undermining statement. "True. But he didn't score until the last few minutes."

"His shot ripped a hole through the goalies net," Allison tried, her eye twitching ever so slightly. "It was incredible."

"I think the goalie was playing with a defected stick, so-"

Allison slammed her glass of water onto the table which caused the whole table to jump to attention. It made her dad stop talking though which Aubrey knew was the goal. If she was in the same position she would have done something along those lines as well because no one warranted that kind of undermining behavior.

"You know on second thought," Scott spoke up in the thick silence, "I think I will have that shot of tequila."

Aubrey breathed out a small laugh which was soon joined by a chorus of laughs from the group. Although her aunt and uncle's looked a tad bit forced.

The rest of the main course was finished with light small talk – mostly done by Gen and Kate as they were acting like they were close. The facade was easy to spot if you knew what to look for though. The conversation was only disturbed when Scott excused himself to make a phone call. Aubrey strained to see the caller id, but to no avail.

"So Aubrey, I don't know if your aunt ever told you," Kate brought the girl's attention to her as Mrs. Argent began to clear the table. "But your father and I were pretty close before. He and my brother went hunting quite often and I tagged along for the ride, so I could tell you some stories."

"Oh really, he never mention anything about you two before," Aubrey commented innocently.

"Mm, probably because this was a while ago. I could share some stories with you anyway, though. Do you shoot or do anything of that sort?"

"I shoot. My dad and I would go out to the range often. He also had me take self-defense classes where I learned how to use a bo staff and things like that."

"Interesting," Kate seemed to contemplate something in her head before she looked next to her, remembering Aubrey's guardians were there. She played it off, "Scott has been gone a while. I'll go check on him."

With that she removed herself from the table and walked out of the room. Aubrey looked next to her at Allison. Sweet Allison had a look of confusion on her face or was it suspicion. Well, whatever emotion her brunette friend was portraying it brought up an important idea that Aubrey had thought about briefly since she found out about werewolves: she should see if Allison knew anything or if the girl needed to be informed about everything.

"Hey All-"

"He was just looking for the restroom," Kate announced as she glided back into the dining room. "Wanna tell us more about this boy Allison?"

That got her friend talking. She told her aunt and everyone else about how great he was at lacrosse, he was super sweet, and even where he worked. You could tell by the small smile on her face and the way she spoke so highly of him, she was smitten and Aubrey would almost use the phrase 'in love.' She was happy for her friend, although it was kind of awkward because she wasn't used to being near couples who had just fallen for each other. Finn and Gen's relationship was more laid back and less in the honeymoon phase, which was the opposite for Allison and Scott. It was cute and secretly Aubrey hoped for something similar in the future.

Allison had just finished telling them a bit of information on Scott's work when the boy walked back in. He gave Aubrey a quick glance, trying to tell her something, before he tried to excuse himself from a dinner he didn't want to attend anyway. However, Kate was very interested in him and lightly pushed him to stay for the dessert.

"Allison was just telling us you worked for a veterinarian," she commented.

Aubrey was beginning to feel like her family was a bit out of place and the Argent's were more interested in Allison's boyfriend. It wasn't terrible because she didn't have to talk in the conversation, but it was just bad etiquette on their part. It just drove her attention away from what was being said and to a 'what if' scenario if she was literally anywhere else. Her mind drifted to Stiles and Derek and wondered how the big bad wolf was holding up.

That seemed to jump start her mind: she had to look for that bullet. She took note of her uncle joining in on the conversation about the mountain lion theory going around the town before leaning forward to grab Kate's attention. "Where did you say the restroom was," she whispered.

"I let Scott use the guest bedroom, but I believe the restroom is down that hall," Kate whispered back, pointing in a direction that was away from her guest room. Aubrey smiled in thanks before standing and walking that direction. The noise from the conversation died down the further she was, and the space away allowed her to inspect the rooms they had in the other side of the house. She quietly opened maybe two doors and peaked in, noticing nothing. The other rooms she surveyed were open, which gave her more time to hastily look for anything that would be suspicious; pertaining to werewolves suspicious. Nothing presented itself though and after a little over five minutes, maybe ten, she wandered back into the dining room – trying to make it look like she had just gotten lost.

Nobody paid any mind to her as the table cleared of dessert and Finn and Gen were thanking the Argents for the meal. Aubrey made her way over to them, but she was stopped by Kate.

"We didn't really get to talk that much. I just wanted to offer you the chance to get back into any activities you did with your dad. Like shooting, or you said bo staff. I don't know much about bo staffs, but I have one thing your dad used to love that might be along the same lines. Only if you're interested." Kate made her voice gentle and the women's bright eyes made the offer very appealing.

"That's really nice of you Kate," Aubrey started, "I just don't know if I'm ready to start doing that stuff a lot right now."

"Hey, it's no push to start doing it daily or anything. I just wanted to place the chance out there, so while I'm here I could give you pointers or share stories of your dad. He was an amazing guy, him and your mom, they were very talented people."

Her parents, this women could tell her more about her parents. That addition made her brain and her heart go against each other. Every day, it seemed like she was forgetting small things about them, only remembering their deaths and those depressing emotions. This new information, that her dad was a hunter, only made her want to learn more about them and change her current thoughts of them to something happier. Kate's offer would also give her the opportunity to see them at a different angle, before they had her. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing yet which might have been the reason she said: "Okay, if these training sessions would include stories of them. When would you want to start?"

"We could start in the next week," Kate suggested, "It'll give me the chance to make sure I have everything we need."

"Alright. Thank you for the offer and the invitation to dinner."

"Of course," the blonde smiled, "If you'll excuse me for a moment."

Aubrey nodded, turning back to her aunt and uncle who were still conversing with Mrs. Argent as Kate sauntered out of the room. When she was next to her guardians they were making small talk with Allison's mother while also thanking her for the meal again.

All of their attention was dragged away from the conversation, though, when Kate accused Scott of taking something from her bag. Oh shit, he must have found the bullet or something. Aubrey started to anxiously gnaw on the inside of her cheek as Scott was being hounded by accusations from Kate and Mr. Argent.

They quickly stopped when Allison pulled out a condom, saying that Scott didn't take anything. That took Mrs. Argent's breath and Aubrey could see the women's face almost turn the shade of red as her hair due to anger. Her guardians were at a loss for words and they dragged their niece out of the house shortly after Scott's departure.

"That had to be the most painfully awkward dinner I have ever gone too," Aubrey commented on the car ride home.

"I'll take the fall for agreeing to go," Gen responded with a light chuckle, "Chris is just as strict and by the books as I remember him and Kate is just as, hm, interesting."

"So did you know them well back in the day?"

"Your father was closer to them. Kate and I tried to connect, but it just didn't work out. Same thing with your mom; she just didn't like what the Argent's did."

"Hunting right," Aubrey speculated as she watched the trees wiz by.

"Yes. I think she was like me and just didn't like the whole idea, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. She never really talked about it, although I remember one conversation when she said that she wanted Wyatt to stop because it was wrong."

"I could see her saying that. She was always the gentler of the two," Aubrey smiled at the memory she had of her mother. She was a sweet women and everyone that met her was immediately drawn to her. Aubrey distinctly remembered when her mother would sing to her in public that people would stop to listen; any time she sang calmed her down too. She was even encouraged to start singing herself, but it never truly had the same effect. One of the downfalls of singing now, was that it reminded her too much of her mother which is why she hasn't sung since her death.

"What did Kate talk to you about before we left," Finn asked as he made a turn in the road.

"Oh, um, she just offered to let me practice shooting or the bo staff in the future."

"And what did you tell her," her aunt's voice told Aubrey that she was looking for an answer of no, so she took that route.

"I told her I would think about it, but I probably won't go through with it." Liar, her conscious screeched at her, but she couldn't bring herself to feel as guilty because after all they were withholding information themselves. This might be the turning point that would make the game even.


	7. Chapter Seven

Aubrey learned her lesson promptly when she suggested they pull straws to see who would go get the movie from the video store. It had been a long day for all three people living under the Hayes roof: Gen had to redirect a project at her research and development firm, Finn had to do mountains of repetitive paper work, and Aubrey had had four long tests. None of them were willing to go out and get a movie, they didn’t want to watch one they owned either, so came her suggestion to pull straws. She got the short end of the stick, literally, and was now driving to the video store to rent Tron Legacy since none of them had watched it yet – not having enough time together to do so. This seemed like the perfect night to do so. That didn’t make Aubrey any less bitter about having to go and get the movie. She thought she would luck out and not have to go get it. But she just kept telling herself that she would be in and out of the video store, soon back on the couch with buttery popcorn, wrapped in a fluffy blanket, and watching this movie.

Just thinking about it made her long to be back home, but that also made her realize that she needed to do more with her spare time than watch movies. Although, she was getting back into the social scene for the most part and she did do other things occasionally; such as, looking up stuff about werewolves, and after the whole bullet incident Stiles had informed her that there was another werewolf out there, called an alpha, that they had to worry about. Apparently he was the one who bit Scott to begin with and now Derek was after him, but Aubrey was fairly sure he didn’t have a solid plan for what to do when he found the alpha.

She pulled into one of the many parking spaces of the old, run down video store and got out. Trudging into the store gave her an odd feeling, like a chill running down her back. Aubrey put her guard up slightly and began to hunt for the movie while making a mental note that this place was severely unorganized.

Ten minutes passed before a headache started to set in and she still had no movie in hand. She was becoming impatient and frustrated as she went up and down the multiple aisles they had, only having covered half the store. Walking down another aisle is when she heard a voice echo through the store: “Can someone help me find the Notebook?”

Aubrey walked to the end and found Jackson of all people in the middle of all the rows of videos. “Jackson? What are you doing here?”

He followed the sound of her voice and looked down at her when he noticed he wasn’t alone anymore, “Oh it’s just you. Have you seen anybody?”

“No. I’ve been looking for a movie for, like, an eternity, but it honestly doesn’t seem like anybody is working tonight.”

Jackson scowled, it wasn’t as deep as Derek’s, but it gave off the vibe of irritation. “Great. But I should have expected service like this in a store, well, like this. Nobody in this stupid town knows how to operate a functioning business.”

He looked like he was going to say more when something behind her had caught his eye. She turned to follow his gaze and only saw a flickering overhead light which she ignored earlier – just trying to find the movie and leave. He found it fascinating, however, and slowly strolled in its direction. She gave him a quizzical look, but he brushed it off as he got closer. She made a few steps alongside him, but when he turned his head down one of the last aisles he stopped. A look of horror was on his face in no time and he held out a hand for her to stop.

Aubrey’s heart rate picked up as her fight or flight instincts were getting higher the closer she got to the blond boy. She chose to ignore his signal to stop, which was the wrong decision, as she saw what had made him freak out. It was the clerk, who had likely been working on the light, lying on the ground, dead. His throat was slashed and the blood was freshly clotted which meant this happened probably just before she got there.

“Oh my god,” she whispered as she stepped backwards with a hand flying up to her chest. Jackson was right there with her, but he stumbled back too much, hitting the ladder near the light which caused the whole thing to topple over. The rest of the lights in the store went out right after. That wasn’t the worst part, though, as some lights continued to flicker ominously a low, deep growl vibrated the walls around them. Jackson’s breathing hitched as he looked towards the front of the store, she turned her head ever so slightly to see what drew his attention, if it was the thing that growled.

There in front of their eyes was a wolf like beast with glowing red eyes. The red eyes she had seen following her every other week. Aubrey’s own breathing got caught in her throat as she grabbed Jackson’s hand and tugged him behind one of the D.V.D racks.

He screwed his eyes shut when they hit the ground, trying to gain back whatever breath he lost upon seeing that thing. While he tried to gain a composure she moved to the other side of the shelf, so she could hopefully see where this thing was. Jackson had a similar idea when he reopened his eyes.

She peered down the dark aisle, trying to see anything in the low light. However, she only heard the creature as it growled once again. That growl was then accompanied by the rattling of other shelves. Aubrey was too late in realizing that it had knocked down the rest of the shelves to create a domino effect that would trap the two teens underneath. The only thing she was able to do was jump and twist her body so she landed on her back when the shelf came crashing down, crushing her lower body. Her breathes were picking up as the weight settled itself on top of her. She silently thanked the lord she was able to flip onto her back otherwise she would be in a worse position to deal with any threats or removing the shelf from herself.

Another growl sounded out barely five feet away from her and she knew that the alpha was closing in. She had no idea what it was planning to do, but she needed to think of something that would help her chances of survival go up. But when she saw the dark grey face of the wolf above her, her mind went blank. He bared his teeth slightly as she looked into his piercing red eyes. His clawed hand reached out and cut her lightly on the left cheek as he ran it down the side of her face. He brought the claw up to his face and seemingly examined her blood. Her breathing picked up to a hyperventilating state as she watched him. Aubrey had no idea what he was looking for, but it appeared that neither did he. He was perplexed by something. It confused her as well because last time she checked her blood was completely ordinary and didn’t have any secrets or hidden messages within it.

The wolf looked down upon her again, but didn’t get any closer or move his body. He disappeared seconds later. Aubrey was fairly sure she was shaking when he was no longer in her field of vision. She only relaxed her tense body and closed her eyes to regain herself when she heard the shattering of glass from the front of the store.

“Jackson,” she called out quietly, minutes later, after she was sure that the beast was gone and not going to come back again.

“I’m here,” he shakily whispered back.

“Good. Are you okay?”

“Fine apart from having this case on top of my legs,” was his snarky response. She rolled her eyes and tried to move her unsteady hands underneath the shelf to find any leverage to lift it off them.

“Are you okay,” his voice sounded again, with a shakier feel than his response before. Aubrey was kind of taken aback by the question and the gentler vibe in his speech.

“I’m okay. Do you have your phone – we need to call 911.”

As if on cue she heard sirens out in the distance, she just hoped it was for them and that Jackson had come with Lydia or someone else that would have called after seeing that thing jump out of the building. Her prayer was answered when the sirens were loud and clear outside of the store.

Policemen and paramedics entered the building and helped take the shelf off of the two teens. Aubrey thanked them, but Jackson had locked away whatever kind personality he had and went back to his usual self: telling them he was fine and to let him walk out without an examination. The paramedics insisted on a quick checkup, though, which revealed that Jackson could have a minor concussion and Aubrey did have a concussion. According to the paramedic that looked at her, it was a stage 0 concussion and she would be fine in a day – nothing was serious, just a bump on the head from her fall. She hadn’t even felt anything due to adrenaline, so when she was guided out to the ambulance that is when she started to get the headache. The flashing lights and Jackson’s voice were no help either.

Lydia was there as well, sitting on the back of the ambulance in a shock blanket and looking dazed – like she had checked out of the world. It was kind of creepy to look at the way her eyes glossed over as she stared at the woods. Jackson was by her side in no time, carefully touching her shoulder; letting her know that he was there for her.

Aubrey walked over to the couple and jumped on the back of the ambulance to comfort her friend as well. She grabbed her hand, rubbing circles on the back of it with her thumb. Both sat like that for a few minutes before Jackson startled them by yelling at a paramedic just trying to do their job.

“Get off of me! I said I’m fine.”

Aubrey’s headache stabbed her behind the eye at the sound of his loud voice, “Jackson!”

He turned to her and she saw a fiery anger steaming within his eyes. “Stop,” she pleaded, “Just let them do their job and you can go home faster and give me less of a headache.”

He relaxed a bit at the surprising calmness of her voice. Aubrey was shocked herself that she was so calm in this situation. She had just been face to face with the alpha and yet she was as calm as ever. Probably just shock, her mind told her, I’ll probably have a panic attack when I get home. Or it could be that she just knew what was going on and he didn’t – he was scared because he didn’t know what that thing was. She did.

Jackson lost his cool again, though, when Sheriff Stilinski arrived at the scene minutes later. “Why the hell can’t I just go home? I’m fine.”

The Sheriff nodded his head, “I hear you, but the EMT said that you hit your head pretty hard. They just want to make sure you don’t have a concussion like Ms. Douglas over here.”

He made a move to come over to Aubrey, but stopped in his tracks when Jackson’s anger bubbled over again. “What part of ‘I’m fine’ are you having trouble grasping? Okay, I want to go home!”

“And I understand that.”

“No. You don’t understand, which kind of blows my mind since it should be a simple thing to grasp for a minimum wage, rent-a-cop, like you! Okay! Now I want to go home.”

“Jackson,” Aubrey shouted back at him, “Shut up and let the damn EMT look at your head. Then you can go home and wallow in your bed trying to forget about tonight, okay? But guess what, news flash, you’re not the only one that’s scared or hurt right now. So, shut up and let them do their job and we can all go home.”

That got him to close his mouth and fall into silence. Even Sheriff Stilinski was stunned by her sudden outburst, but it needed to be done, her headache was getting worse the longer she was sitting here listening to him complain. Yes, it had been terrifying and she understood his desire to want to go home, but it wouldn’t happen if he couldn’t co-operate.

“Woah, is that a dead body,” a new voice called out in the semi-silence her outburst had caused. Aubrey looked to the voice and saw none other than Stiles Stilinski standing near a cop car. Her frustration seemed to melt away as she saw him look completely fascinated with the dead body being rolled out on a stretcher. But he ducked down a bit as his father gave him a stern look before he tried to get people that had arrived away from the scene.

She hopped off the ambulance back to give the EMTs space to work and get the body inside. Jackson grabbed hold of Lydia as she did the same and then he finally co-operated with a paramedic trying to make sure he was okay.

“You okay,” someone asked behind her. She jumped, but only saw Stiles awkwardly shuffling behind her.

“I-I think so. For the most part,” she looked down at herself, looking for any more injuries she might not have noticed. Nothing had changed though.

Stiles’ hand twitched up a bit and rose close to her left cheek, “You should probably have them look at that.”

Her own hand rose to her face and as she pulled it away she saw very little blood coating her pointer finger. “It’s only a superficial cut. Nothing to worry about.”

He seemed to disagree with that, but he didn’t get the chance to say that as his dad walked up to them. “The area is secure. I’ll bring you in for a statement on what happened in the next two days or so. But for now let’s get you home. I’m sure Deputy Hayes is worried about you, your aunt too.”

Aubrey could only nod and he guided her to his police cruiser, opening up the passenger door for her. Getting in and the drive home became a blur to her. The only thing she noted was a comment made about Stiles being in the back seat: where it wouldn’t surprise her if he sat back their often with all the shenanigans he and Scott got into.

When she got home, it was a whirlwind of worry coming from her guardians. They grabbed her face and looked over every part to make sure she was okay. That was followed by hugs of relief. She thanked the Sheriff for the ride and was rushed inside by her aunt while Finn stayed out to talk to Stilinski.

Aubrey felt lost in a daze as her aunt cleaned her scratch, the shock of the situation taking over. She was finally left alone when she told both of them she wanted to go to bed and rest her concussion. However, being alone only allowed all of the memories from tonight to come crawling back to the forefront of her mind which caused her to start breathing exercises to prevent any panic attack. This was going to be a long night.

~~~~~*~~~~~

“No,” Gen declared, “You are not going to school today. The EMT said it would take a day to clear up the concussion, so we are going to take advantage of that. You are staying home.”

Aubrey had woken up ready for school, but when she got downstairs her aunt had forcefully pulled her back up the stairs. She groaned the whole way back to her room, telling her aunt she was fine and could handle going to school today.

“Auntie Gen, I honestly don’t see the problem. I’m fine,” Aubrey whined, “It wasn’t even a mild concussion. Grade 0 concussions are only a headache and a little difficulty concentrating. I looked it up. So I should be just fine at school.”

Gen sighed, “Aubrey, I know you are a tough girl. You’ve gone through so much, but please can you just stay home. Give yourself time to heal.”

Aubrey held her aunt’s stare, trying to win the non-verbal battle that had also started during their discussion. She lost fairly quickly though, falling back onto her bed dramatically in defeat.

“Fine,” she caved, “I’ll stay home.”

“Good.”

Her aunt didn’t leave her room though, and instead sat down on the bed as her niece stared up at the empty, white ceiling. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“No,” she mumbled. She didn’t want to talk about those glowing red eyes or that terrifying face or the fact that it had gotten so close to her and she couldn’t do anything except watch its every move. She didn’t want to go back and relive it through her memory again, like she had been doing all night. Her aunt understood, got up, and left her room so she could rest. Aubrey couldn’t rest though, her mind was racing.

Being that helpless just brought her back to the awful moment when her father died. This was similar to how she felt after she and her father got into the car crash two weeks after her mother had died. They were returning home from the funeral – they had waited that long because her mother had drowned while surfing. They couldn’t find the body due to the rough, deep waters and she was pronounced dead when she never showed back up. They only knew she probably drowned when her surf board was found broken in half in one of the most deadly parts of the ocean off the coast of Oregon. It was very rare if someone survived after going under in those parts because if the waves didn’t drag you under then the sharp rocks were sure to take your life before the water came back to carry you out to sea.

It was dark on the drive back and they were on one of the back roads that had no illuminations, only the beams from the headlights to light their way. A truck was driving down that road, but he was dozing at the wheel or drunk or something, and he drifted into their lane. He crashed into them, or more accurately crashed into her dad. The man had come to some of his senses and corrected himself enough so it wasn’t a head on collision, just hitting the driver’s side of the car.

Aubrey’s heart picked up just thinking about the blurred memory. She didn’t remember much after that, only waking up occasionally. One flashing memory was her father’s last breath and the pain in her side from the glass that had stabbed her. Later she was informed that when the car had hit them, her dad had two choices: either stay in his seat as the car lost control or shield her from too much damage. He must have known he couldn’t gain back control, they were just going too fast, so he took the chance at saving his little girl. He took most of the blow.

It was traumatic and Aubrey is pretty sure she hasn’t fully recovered from the experience, even almost two years later. She doesn’t know of anyone that would recover if they had been through what she had. And with that final thought she dozed back off to bed, giving her aunt the satisfaction that was using the recovery day to actually help herself.

Her short morning nap, came and went not really giving her the recovery she longed for. So, Aubrey decided to read one of her old books on Greek mythology. It was one of her mom’s favorites and reliving the accident made her seek comfort in one of the stories her mom loved to read her. The legend was about Hades, Persephone, her human companions, and Demeter. It was an odd story, but both Douglas women couldn’t help but love the story. In this version it was about how Hades wanted Persephone to love him and after time she was able to, he even gave her the freedom she desired by letting her roam amongst the living for six months of the year. Of course there is more detail than that, but those are the main parts she remembered her mother reading to her as a kid.

She read that story, along with a multitude of other Greek myths, well into the afternoon until a knock sounded on her bedroom door. She peeked over the book she held close to her face as the door opened to reveal her aunt in a professional, but casual dress.

“Hey sweetie, Stiles is here to see you.”

That made her eyes go wide. She closed her book, placing it on top of the small pile on her bed, and sat up properly as Stiles entered her room. She became self-conscious about her pajamas and her long, wild hair that was likely sticking up as weird angles. She wasn’t used to letting people not a part of her family see her in such disarray. Stiles didn’t seem to pay any mind to her disheveled look as he bounced back and forth on his heels, smiling awkwardly at her.

Gen left the door wide open when she walked away, leaving the two teenagers alone. “Hey Aubrey,” he said casually.

She pushed her insecurities away for the moment to pat her bed, inviting him to sit down so he wouldn’t be looking down at her or shuffling around. “Hi Stiles. What are you doing here?”

He took her invitation and sat down at the foot of her bed. “You weren’t at school today. I was worried and wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m not used to you missing school days, so it kind of freaked me out. Not that you’re not allowed to miss school, but yeah.”

“Thanks Stiles,” a small smile was on her lips while her cheeks heated up. She couldn’t believe someone bothered to notice if she was at school or not, let alone come visit her to make sure everything was okay. “That’s very sweet of you. I’m fine, though. Just stayed home to ease Gen’s nerves, I think I scared her last night.”

He nodded before his hands twitched and he bounced his foot as he looked at her.

“Is there something else you wanted to talk about,” she asked.

“Um, I stopped by Lydia’s as well.” Her heart dropped a little. It made sense though, that he would visit the girl he had a crush on first before one of his newer friends. It was reasonable, but Aubrey couldn’t figure out why it made her feel so dejected. “She was really drugged up,” he continued, “but that’s not important or the point. What’s important is that I found something on her phone. I just didn’t know what to do and Scott’s not answering his cell, so I thought of the only other person I trust.”

He pulled out Lydia’s phone from his pocket, opened it, and showed Aubrey the video it had captured. It was quick and fuzzy, but it seemed to be the alpha jumping through the window and running passed Lydia’s car.

“I don’t know what to do with it,” Stiles repeated, foot tapping faster on the ground.

She swallowed, “I would delete it. She doesn’t need to see that on her phone.”

“That’s the alpha, right? You were attacked by the alpha.”

She nodded stiffly, “I know – I know I should have told you last night, but I-“

She cut herself off not knowing how to finish. She didn’t need to, though. He seemed to understand what she was trying to say, only taking one of her hands in his. He rubbed circles, much like she had done to comfort Lydia last night. Stiles gave her a weak smile to which she returned after a deep breath.

“Thanks Stiles.”

Her words kick started a reaction from him that made him return to his jittery self and pull his hand away. “Um you’re – you’re welcome.”

His attention returned to the phone and a few clicks later the video was deleted – the phone returned to his pocket. “So you’re sure you’re okay? Lydia and Jackson seemed to be pretty freaked out today. ”

“Just adding it to my list of traumas,” she joked awkwardly, shaking her head. “I just keep thinking about how we, a bunch of teenagers, are supposed to handle all this crap.”

He understood, “I don’t know, but I think if we stick together we should be fine.”

“Okay, together, then. You and me.”

His cheeks flared red, she noticed it briefly as Gen re-entered the room, this time with her purse and car keys in hand. “I’m off to the parent teacher conference. Stiles you are welcome to stay, if you want. No funny business though.” She gave both of them a pointed look before disappearing once again, her heals clicking on the floor until the sound faded away.

Aubrey cleared her throat, “Want to play a video game? We have a few down stairs.”

“Hell yeah,” Stiles jumped up from the bed and walked out her bedroom before she even left her bed, probably trying to hide his blush.


	8. Chapter Eight

“Stiles,” Aubrey called out as she tried to maneuver around people in the hallway. He seemed lost to the world, but that was understandable after getting the call from last night. The duo was in the middle of a game when his phone rang with a call from his dad. Apparently he had been hit by a car backing out of the parking lot and was going to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t too serious. Aubrey couldn’t imagine the hit doing too much damage since the car barely had enough momentum; likely to only cause enough pain to relieve the Sheriff from going into work for a few days while his body healed.

Stiles had reacted badly though, when his dad told him everyone else was okay; including Scott and Mrs. McCall. Yet, once he found out Scott had been present and could have done something to save his dad from getting hurt he became angry and resentful of his friend. She tried to tell him differently, but he wasn’t having it and rushed out of her house quickly after.

He turned to look at her as she came barreling up to his side, “Hey, is your dad alright?”

He seemed hesitant to answer, not even looking down at the girl. “Yeah, he’s okay. No thanks to Scott though.”

Aubrey felt bad that Scott was being accused for not helping when she saw it as him not having enough time to get to Stiles’ dad. From the story her Aunt Gen told her last night, after Stiles left, Scott had saved Allison from getting hit by a faster moving car. So she didn’t blame Scott for not reaching the Sheriff in time; Stiles obviously felt different about the entire thing.

She sighed, but didn’t respond to his bitter comment as both walked into their English class. They found seats near the back row and sat side by side. He said nothing to her which freaked her out because usually he would talk about anything on his mind. Apparently, this situation with Scott kept Stiles locked away in his thoughts of anger.

Scott scurried in not to long after they were seated, taking the open spot behind Stiles. It was almost painful to watch as the best friends went through this rough patch: Stiles ignoring Scott, and Scott desperate for his friend to talk to him.

“Still not talking to me,” Scott whispered to the boy in front of him, who was facing the front of the class with a scowl on his face as he twirled a pencil. “Can you at least tell me if your dad is okay? Nothing big, right? Just a bruise or some soft tissue damage? You know I feel really bad about it, right?”

Aubrey bit her tongue so she wouldn’t say anything; that only lasted a minute though before she burst with an answer. “His dad will be fine Scott,” she whispered back to him without taking her eyes off the board in the front of class.

When her eyes darted to Stiles, he shot her a quick glance that conveyed something along the lines of ‘how could you betray me like that?’ She mouthed a sorry to him before looking back to the front where the teacher was giving the class instructions on what to do. She didn’t retain any of his words, however, and kept her ears tuned into the boys’ one-sided conversation.

“What if I told you that I’m trying to figure this whole thing out, and that I went to Derek for help?”

Stiles’ eye twitched before he muttered back, “If I was talking to you, I would tell you that you’re an idiot for trusting that guy. But obviously I’m not talking to you.”

Stiles went back to ignoring his friend for the rest of class, but every time she looked towards him, he looked to be having an internal conflict with himself. One part wanting to ignore Scott until the other boy learned whatever lesson Stiles thought he should. The other part of his mind wanted to know what Derek said. Aubrey was wondering herself.

Stiles finally broke, five minutes left in class, and turned around to face Scott, whose face lit up. “What did he say?”

Aubrey turned around as well and looked expectantly at Scott while he explained that Derek said he needed to tap into his primal animal rage so he could teach him how to do this properly. The bell rang in the middle of what he was saying which caused all three teens to jump before grabbing their things and exiting the classroom.

Stiles did a quick recap when they made it into the hall, “So he wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry.”

“Yeah.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but every time you do that you usually try and kill someone. That someone is typically me by the way.”

“That’s what he means when he says he doesn’t know if he can teach me,” Scott clarified, guilt evident on his face from the comment about always trying to kill Stiles. “I have to learn to control that side of me.”

“Well how is he gonna teach you to control it using anger? Because all that seems to do is keep you angry at the world which will probably make you want to kill even more,” Aubrey theorized as she tried to keep pace with both boys rushing down the hall.

“I don’t think he really knows,” he admitted.

“When are you seeing him again,” Stiles butted back in.

“He is picking me up at the animal clinic after work.”

“Alright, that gives me to the end of the school day then.”

“To do what,” Aubrey asked bewildered, furrowing her eyebrow.

“To teach Scott myself and you are going to help. Come on.” Stiles grabbed Aubrey’s hand and dragged her away from Scott, down the hall.

He never told her what his plan was, but in between class periods – until their free period and before lunch – she and Stiles made a few pit-stops by coach’s office to retrieve items that he would need to help Scott. This included a track heart rate monitor, coach’s phone, Stiles’ lacrosse stick, and a bag of lacrosse balls. Even after all her questioning of the items and the legalness of the situation, he still didn’t feel the need to share what they were planning to do with all this. Only saying that it would all make sense when they arrived at the field before he disappeared into his class.

Aubrey had a bad feeling about this though, but she didn’t express her concerns as to not dampen Stiles’ newly improved mood. Although, she was worried that he was just using this opportunity to teach Scott to instead enact revenge for last night. She left behind those thoughts, however, when her class ended and she walked into the cafeteria for lunch, later than normal.

She spotted both Allison and Lydia quickly, so that is where she diverted her attention to. Not to Scott and Stiles who were doing a poor job of hiding – Scott even looking at Allison over a book.

“Whatcha got there Allison,” Aubrey asked when she arrived at the table to see Allison engrossed in an older, worn book and Lydia looking bored out of her mind.

“Don’t make her tell you,” Lydia semi-begged, “It’s just a uninteresting story about a big wolf. I think I will literally die of boredom if she continues on.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes at the girl she sat down next to and put her attention onto her dark haired friend. “I’m sure it’s not that boring. Ally please continue.” She smirked at Lydia as Allison cleared her throat, finding the place she had left off on before she was interrupted by their late friend.

“I was telling Lydia about the beast of Gevaudan. Cryptozoologists believe it to be a hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid. Others believed it to be a powerful sorcerer who could shape shift into a man eating monster.”

“Slipping into a coma bored,” Lydia chimed in. Aubrey tried not to pay any mind to her friend as she complained about the story. Instead she tried to understand why Allison was looking into this old legend in the first place. “Any of this have to do with your family?”

At Lydia’s question, Aubrey caught on that this was for their history project where they were supposed to find a story from the past or something. In all honesty, she wasn’t listening to the directions, planning to do this project last minute like she did every other school project. It probably wasn’t the best strategy now that she thought about it.

“This,” Allison answered, “It is believed that the beast was finally captured and killed by a renown hunter. A man by the name Argent.”

“Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?”

“Not just a big wolf. Look at this picture,” Allison flipped her book around and on the page was a striking picture that resembled the alpha both she and Lydia had encountered days before. Aubrey paid less mind to the picture, not wanting to think of the beast, and put more of her attention on the strawberry blonde who seemed to be taken by the image. A flash of recognition danced across her green eyes and a look of fear accompanied it soon after.

“Lydia,” Aubrey whispered trying to get her attention away from the wolf and back to reality.

She brushed away her fright and put on a ‘told you so’ look, “It looks like a big wolf.” She picked up her bag and food tray. “See you in history.”

With that she was gone, leaving only Allison and Aubrey. This was a perfect time to talk to her friend about everything; considering the truth was sitting right in front of her eyes, so that is exactly what Aubrey did. “What do you think that thing is?”

“Aside from a big wolf,” Allison said, amused, “I think it reminds me of those werewolf myths. You know, big, shape shifting, a wolf. I think they have red eyes too. Why? Do you think it’s something else?”

Aubrey could tell the girl was just as innocent in this subject as she had been on what to do with relationships. So that meant she obviously didn't know werewolves were real. But her finding this story was no accident either, and Aubrey could probably place the culprit in Kate.

“Hm, what would say if I told you that this legend was real? That werewolves are real,” she tried cautiously, tilting her head to the side. Allison rose her eyebrow in confusion and suspicion which made Aubrey’s leg tap nervously on the ground as she tried to keep a straight face that told her she wasn’t kidding. They held eye contact for a while before Allison broke it, rapidly blinking.

“I would say that is ridiculous because werewolves are fiction. Look, if you find this story or the connection I made to a very popular myth stupid then you could just tell me instead of making fun of it.”

Aubrey cringed, shaking her head. “No, no. I’m not making fun of it. I’m just, um, trying to tell you something, but apparently I suck at explaining this sort of thing.”

“You’re trying to tell me that werewolves are real?” Allison quirked her eyebrow again and gave her friend a pointed look. Aubrey nodded before Allison continued, “Aubrey that is kind of inane because they are simply old tales that people made up to teach their kids a lesson or something. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but-“

Allison’s speech drifted off as she looked behind Aubrey. She turned around too, and saw Stiles walk away from a table with the book Scott had been using to cover himself, which left Scott out in the open. Allison seemed to forget about their conversation and got up to chase after Scott, who was now running out of the cafeteria to avoid talking to Allison.

Aubrey closed her eyes in defeat. That could have gone so much better, now one of her only close friends is going to think she was crazy for believing the supernatural was real. Even though, technically, it was and they were living amongst werewolves and who knows what else. Hell, her boyfriend was a werewolf.

The facts of reality didn’t stop Aubrey from cringing at herself for trying to let Allison in on the big secret though. She honestly didn’t know what to say to get her to believe, but now that she was alone with her thoughts maybe it was a good thing Allison thought it was a joke. That way she could live a little longer in ignorant bliss before her family pulled her into the supernatural world. 

Aubrey didn’t like that idea either because after finding out herself, she thought it was better knowing than being left in the dark. Take Jackson’s reaction to the alpha for instance, he was absolutely terrified because a big, scary wolf – that everyone passed for a mountain lion – could have killed him and he would have never known what it was. Whereas she knew and it was less terrifying, not by much but still. Allison needs to know, she reminded herself, she’s already apart of this whether she liked it or not – same goes for herself.

Aubrey looked at the time and realized she still had about ten minutes left before lunch ended. She glanced around at the emptying cafeteria and spotted a familiar face sitting all alone at his table. Smiling, she got up from her chair and made her way over to him.

“Hi Boyd,” She said as she sat down right across from him. He wasn’t that surprised to see her, just startled that she actual spoke to him.

“Hi.”

“It’s been a while. I just wanted to say hi, since we never really introduced ourselves last year. Even though we did sit next to each other for the majority of the year, but that's not really the point of why I came over here,” she rambled on awkwardly, trying to justify her reason for coming over to his table out of the blue – kind of regretting her choice since she forgot how socially awkward she was.

“You never seemed like you wanted to talk to me, or to anyone.”

He kept his gaze steady and wore an unmoving expression as she shrugged, “I wasn’t my best self last year. I’m trying to be better, more social.”

Boyd only nodded, not really knowing what to say she guessed. Aubrey continued on, “So what have you been up too?”

God, she just wanted to walk away from this conversation because she sucked at small talk and that’s what this was going to be. Boyd didn’t even seem that interested in the conversation anyway, maybe she could just walk away. She brushed that decision away, however, when he actually answered.

“Nothing. I still work at the ice rink, so that’s something I guess. I don’t do much outside of there and school.”

That was the most she has ever heard him speak in one sitting, even in classes. He was such a quiet guy, but it was nice to actually have sparked a discussion with him. She smiled a bit. “I didn’t know you worked there. That is so cool. Do you know any cool tricks on the ice?”

“I guess you could say that,” a ghost of a smile was on his lips before it was out of sight, like it was never there. The bell rang out to signal the end of lunch and the end of their short talk. As both teens stood, Aubrey made one last comment.

“I’ll stop by the ice rink one of these days and you’ll have to show me some of that talent,” she smiled gracelessly before waving him goodbye, vanishing out the cafeteria doors seconds later.

Now began her free period, where she had to endure the stupidity of Stiles’ plan. She bounded down the steps when she broke through the school doors that led to the back of the building, where the fields were. The two boys she was looking for were already setting up on the lacrosse field. It was easy to spot them because only they would chose to spend their free time outside in this chilly weather. Aubrey set down her school bag on the last bench of the bleachers before she moseyed over to them.

Stiles was duct taping Scott’s hands behind his back before backing away with his lacrosse stick and the balls. She was next to him as he poured the balls out of the bag and tossed the stick between his twitching hands.

“So your plan is to hit your best friend with a bunch of lacrosse balls,” Aubrey spoke up, keeping her eyes on Scott.

“Yep,” Stiles said. “I think the shift has to do with heart rate. The angrier you get the faster you’re heart rate gets, hence the monitor we borrowed. If he can just control his heart he won’t shift, in theory.” He picked up one of the balls in the pile with his stick and hurdled it at Scott, meeting his mark at Scott’s gut. “Told him to just stay calm.”

She shook her head, it was a sound plan for the most part. But her thought about it just being a revenge plot was semi-confirmed as he threw another ball at Scott. And another. And another.

“I think this is helping my aim,” He commented with a smile of pure joy. Aubrey snorted at the cute, dopey face he made.

“Wonder why,” Scott barked angrily.

“Ah, buh, buh. Don’t get angry,” Stiles shouted back taking another ball into his net. “You want to try?” He moved his eyes to her before throwing the ball at Scott again.

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly, “I’ve never used a lacrosse stick.”

He threw another ball before stopping for a second, really looking at her now. “That’s okay. I can teach you how to throw it. I’m not the best, but I do know the basics.”

He scooped up another ball before giving her the stick. She took it and held it at an odd angle, as to not drop the ball, before he gently moved her hands into the correct position. He then grabbed hold of her shoulders to move her body into the right form the players usually had before throwing at their target. Once she was in place, he moved his hands back down to her arms, guiding them in a fluid motion, before he helped her shoot the ball. It barely hit Scott’s shoulder, but she had made a shot.

Her face lit up a little as a silly smile spread on her face, she had thrown a ball and it had hit its target. “Sorry Scott,” she called out. He only breathed a sigh of relief, probably thankful that the ball didn’t have any power behind it.

Aubrey turned back to Stiles, whose face was beet red, “You okay?”

“Yep. Yeah, totally okay. Want to try again?”

She shrugged and shakily picked up another ball before hurdling it at Scott again. It just missed his hip and she huffed in displeasure. “I’ll have to practice more if I actually want to hit anything on my own.” She handed the stick back to Stiles, his face less red now, and he returned to throwing balls at Scott.

However, after a while Scott’s heart beat rose at an alarming rate and the boy started to pant. Stiles didn’t stop throwing shots at him until Scott had broken through the duct tape restraint, collapsing on the ground. Aubrey gasped lightly before running over to him, Stiles not far behind. “Scott?”

Stiles echoed Scott’s name and his heart rate began to slow at the sound of their voices. “You started to change.”

“From anger,” Aubrey realized.

“It was more than that,” the werewolf breathed out, “It was like the angrier I got the stronger I felt.”

“So it is anger then. Derek’s right.” Stiles obviously did not like admitting that.

“I can’t be around Allison.”

“Why,” Aubrey interjected, “Because she makes you happy? Because she brings you joy?”

“No,” Scott shook his head, “Because she makes me weak.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

Crap, Aubrey groaned inwardly as she walked into Coach’s class. She had forgotten to do the reading he assigned and one of his favorite things to do was call on someone for a brief summary every class period. She was so screwed if he called on her.

“Let’s go,” Coach yelled, clapping his hands as the bell rang. “Sit, sit, sit. We’ve got a lot to cover today.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes, but complied none the less. She walked over to where her friends were situating themselves, in the middle of the class. She took the open spot in front of Stiles, sitting adjacent to Scott and diagonal to Allison. Scott looked very tense as Allison whispered to him. This was the first time that she had actually talked to him all day, so they were likely conversing about the reason Scott was actively avoiding her.

There quiet conversation lasted until Coach was ready to start the lesson; loudly asking who could do the summary. Hands shot up, but no one around her rose theirs.

“Greenburg, put your hand down. Everyone knows you did the reading. How about,” Coach scanned all the students, “McCall.”

The boy was not paying attention and was caught off guard by the sudden spot light being placed on him, “What?”

“The reading.”

“Last night’s reading?”

The Coach almost glared at his student, “How about the reading of the Gettysburg Address?”

“What?” Aubrey closed her eyes, it was like he didn’t even show up to school.

“That’s sarcasm. You familiar with the term sarcasm, McCall?”

Scott looked behind him at Stiles, who, she could imagine, wore a proud look for being the sarcastic one of the group. “Very.”

The Coach seemed to be growing tired of his antics in avoiding actually summarizing the reading. “Did you do the reading or not?”

“I think I forgot.”

That set off Finstock. One could almost see the steam coming from his ears as he went off on Scott for not having done the reading. He even came out with a low blow by telling the entire class his poor grade. He continued on his rant, but Aubrey caught something else making noise in the class. She subtly turned to Stiles. In his hand was the phone’s heart monitor, it was beeping rapidly. Scott was getting angry as he was being lectured for his poor commitment to doing school work.

Stiles gave her a terrified look as both waited for Scott to turn and wolf out against Coach. That moment never came though. As Finstock was finishing his rant, Scott’s heart rate was returning to normal. Aubrey looked over to him trying to figure out how he had calmed himself down. She saw it not long after: his and Allison’s hands interlocked underneath the desk.

That clicked everything into place for her. Allison grounded him, anchored him back to his human side. She glanced back to Stiles to see his brain putting the puzzle together too. Now they just have to let Scott know.

When the final bell rang, dismissing the students for the rest of the day, Stiles had immediately shot Scott the look of ‘we need to talk.’ Scott surprisingly got the gist and said goodbye to Allison with a dopey grin, utterly in love. She was behind the boys as they pushed out of the classroom, but she stopped in her tracks when someone called her name from behind her. She halted her walk, moving closer to the row of lockers as to avoid the flood of other students. She looked around and spotted Jackson swaggering up to her. Or he was trying to swagger up to her, he looked pale and there were beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.

“Hi Jackson?”

“I didn’t catch you at a bad time, did I,” he asked with an unusual amount of kindness. His soft smile wasn’t easing Aubrey’s nerves either.

“Uh, no,” eyes darting to Stiles and Scott walking down the hall, “Did you need something?”

He tapped his fingers against the strap of his bag, “Actually I just wanted to talk to you. Maybe get to know you a little better.”

She rose her eyebrow skeptically at him, “Why?”

“Well I’ve been sort of an ass to you. Especially the night at the video store and I just want to make up for that.”

“That’s nice Jackson and it’s good to see you try and fix your ways,” she started, “But this seems out of the blue. I mean you didn’t seem to like me two weeks ago. Especially since I’ve been hanging out with Scott and Stiles more and don’t think I haven’t noticed the glares or the looks either.”

“Woah, this isn’t about you and Scott.” He acted offended by the accusation that he didn’t like her because of Scott, even if it was clear that the blond did not like Scott or people associated with him. Aubrey could bet it was due to Scott’s rise in lacrosse; it seemed to make Jackson feel insecure which was far from the cocky attitude he held last year. “I’ve been a jerk to all of you, I’ll admit that, but I’m not a bad guy and I just want a chance to prove it to you.”

“Mm, how do you plan to do that?”

“Well I can start by offering you a ride home since Stilinski seems to have disappeared on you and I know you usually ride with him.”

Aubrey looked around the clearing hallway and, indeed, no longer saw Stiles or Scott anywhere in sight. She was all alone with Jackson. I’m going to have to buy that car soon, she thought looking back to Jackson. She sighed, but accepted his offer – not wanting to walk home through the forest and accidentally encounter wolves.

Jackson’s soft smile broke out into a small grin that showed his teeth. It was definitely a different side to him that she hasn’t seen before; that still didn’t excuse his jackass behavior though.

She walked beside him as they left the school, arriving at his Porsche not long after. He shocked her once more when he actually held open the passengers door for her. Something was definitely shady about this whole thing. He gracefully got into the car after shutting her door forcefully. She noted that he was a lot slower in his movements than Stiles was which was unnatural to witness since she had been around the other boy a lot more the past few weeks.

The radio was low as they traveled through the back road and the gentle song was only interrupted by Jackson clearing his throat. “So, uh, how are you after the whole thing?”

The video store she guessed, “I’m fine. Shaken of course, but otherwise fine.”

He nodded his head and she followed up her answer with the same question. “How are you handling it Jackson?”

The boy let out a breathy sigh, “I don’t know. It freaked me out because I know the thing that attacked us was not a mountain lion. I just don’t know what it was. And you and Lydia seem to be recovering just fine, as you said.”

Aubrey had never seen him so vulnerable and willing to open up like that. She also began to question why he was coming to her with these thoughts instead of his girlfriend. “I can let you in on a secret.”

He glanced over at her as she continued, “I was terrified that night. The only reason I’m semi-okay now is because my family and my new friends are helping me. I think that is what you are trying to do Jackson, find new friends to help you, but you haven’t learned that not everyone is out to get you. Believe me, I know the feeling, but no one is out to get you. I promise.”

She pointed at the next left while he didn’t say anything. They took two more rights before they were on her street and he decided to speak up. “I’m trying, too. This is all new to me. I'm not used to being someone on the outside that doesn't know what's going on. But I'm trying to find out and be better.”

He pulled up alongside her house, but she paused a second as she opened her door. “That’s all anyone can ask of you. If it will help and you can prove you’re not a bad guy, we could try being friends. Only if you put in effort though.”

He gave her a sad smile as she got out of his car, “Thank you for the ride.”

His Porsche zipped down the road as soon as she made it onto her front porch. As she watched the car disappear, Aubrey filed that interaction under her bizarre category. She had not expect Jackson to open up like that or ask for a friendship of sorts. Although, she wanted to believe he was being genuine it was impossible to tell. Everyone she talked to now a days wanted something from her or simply got a thrill out of manipulating people. Jackson could very well be the same way, for now though she would see how he went about his chance at change.


	9. Chapter Nine

“I knew it. He is insane,” Aubrey declared to both boys in her company. “Why did you trust him again?”

“He said he could teach me,” Scott defended, throwing his hands up. “How was I supposed to know he would think my boss is the alpha and then attack him?”

After she got home, from her strange interaction with Jackson, Aubrey went for a run to clear her mind. It had worked for the most part, the route she took was not as condensed with trees and the quiet of the woods was much needed, albeit kind of unsettling since she knew what roamed within. However, once home, as soon as she walked into her bedroom, Stiles called concerned about where she disappeared to after class. It was a nice gesture and she told him about Jackson stopping her, wanting to talk; but she just left it at that. After vaguely explaining her disappearance she questioned his: detention for keying a car.

Aubrey rolled her eyes at the answer, ready to tell him how stupid that was, but Stiles followed up that his concern for her was not the only thing he was calling about. Apparently Derek had beaten the town’s veterinarian, Scott’s boss, unconscious, claiming he was the alpha. Scott needed help to prove Derek was wrong, so that is where Stiles came in. For whatever reason, Stiles asked her if she wanted to tag along, to which she stupidly said yes. Thus led her to listening to Scott’s horrible idea to prove the other beta wrong.

Stiles agreed with her too as they pulled up to the infamous Beacon Hills High School and got out of the jeep. Both boys went around to the back of the vehicle to grab the things Stiles brought along as Aubrey maneuvered her body out of the backseat. When she was on the pavement, headlights illuminated the area for a second before they shut off. It was Derek’s Camaro pulling up.

“Where’s my boss,” Scott demanded instantly while Derek exited his car.

“He’s in the back.”

The three teens bent down to look through Derek’s tinted windows and saw a person tied up, unconscious in the backseat. “He looks comfortable,” Stiles remarked. Aubrey narrowed her eyes at Derek while Scott and Stiles walked towards the school.

“Woah, hey, what are you doing,” Derek called up to them.

“You said I was linked with the alpha,” Scott said, “Let’s see if you’re right.”

Stiles snapped the chains off the school doors with bolt cutters, then tossed them to the side haphazardly before his best friend opened the door. That’s when he noticed that Aubrey wasn’t up there with them.

She was still near the jeep debating whether or not to tag along with the two boys inside the school, and provide unnecessary commentary, or stay outside with Derek to make sure he wouldn’t do anything to Scott’s boss. As much as she didn’t want to be alone with the wolf, she felt it was the wiser decision. Worst case scenario, once she was told Derek would be coming along, she had put mace in her pocket so she could use it if he stepped out of line. Not the smartest thing, provoking a werewolf, but it would give her time to get away if need be.

“Aubrey, what are you doing? You are not staying out here with him,” Stiles said in disbelief, confused as to why she would willingly stay out here with Derek. The boy made to move towards her, but stopped when she held out a hand.

“It’s okay Stiles, go help Scott. I’ll be fine. Besides someone should make sure Derek doesn’t do anything to Scott’s boss, right? And you’re the only one who knows anything about the PA system in the office.”

That wasn’t entirely true, she was fairly sure anyone could work it, but she wanted to boost Stiles up so he wouldn’t stay out here and make Scott do this alone. Aubrey was sure the poor teen wolf would hit all the wrong buttons or something. He needed Stiles there with him. She could manage just fine out here.

Stiles seemed to have a small battle with himself, deciding if he should stay with her, but Scott dragged him inside before he could protest and stay outside. Once both boys were gone, Aubrey felt the weight of her choice. No going back now though.

She looked to the older wolf, who was now leaning on his car in wait. She swallowed before speaking, “So no bullet in your arm must be nice.”

He glared at her, being just as hostile as ever. “How about you stay quiet and watch me like you wanted to do?”

“Well I didn’t want to do it, but I felt like someone should stay and make sure you didn’t beat anyone else. Believe it or not, most people don’t like to creep around on others and watch their every move,” Aubrey bit back, matching his gruff tone.

“I was just trying to find the alpha and you happened to phrase your words the wrong way that night.” He moved closer in her direction. She slowly moved her arms from the position they had across her body into a down setting, placing her right hand over her pocket with the mace. “Now that I know you don’t have any useful information you are of no use to me and just a tag-a-long of Scott’s.”

He stepped back and placed his body back on his car. Aubrey’s breathing hitched the slightest bit and she crossed her arms once more. “By the way,” he broke the silence, “Next time I would chose a more discrete weapon than mace. That stuff reeks and does very little to werewolves.”

Before she could say anything snarky back to him, the intercoms outside crackled on and a high pitched screech echoed through the parking lot. The sound was so ear piercing that Aubrey covered her ears as a way to block out the noise. Derek didn’t bother, but he lost the tough guy persona as his mouth opened a bit. He had finally caught on to what the plan was.

“They are idiots,” he commented, looking ready to walk into that school and drag both boys out by their ears.

Maybe two minutes passed before the coms came on again. Aubrey braced herself for another screech, but she was delightfully greeted by a deep, earth shaking howl that echoed for miles. He had actually done it, Scott howled like a true werewolf and it was amazing. Her amazement dulled when she saw the look of murder on Derek’s face as he waited for the boys to leave the school.

The duo didn’t have to wait long before both boys bounded out of the school, pride radiating off each of them. “I’m gonna kill all of you,” Derek boomed as soon as he saw both figures. “What the hell was that? What are you trying to do, attract the whole state to the school?”

Scott looked sheepish, but not sorry. “Sorry, I didn’t know it would be that loud.”

Stiles beamed, “Yeah, it was loud and it was awesome.”

“Shut up,” Derek barked, not taking his eyes off of Scott.

“Don’t be such a sourwolf.”

Scott slapped Stiles playfully before he noticed something behind her and Derek. Aubrey turned around and saw the back door of Derek’s Camaro wide open, with no veterinarian to be seen. The wheels in her head started to turn as Scott accused Derek of doing something to him.

“Scott he didn’t do anything,” she explained, “I was talking to him the whole time.”

“Then what happ-“

Scott didn’t finish his question because Derek was being raised high into the air, with blood gushing from his mouth. Aubrey could have sworn her heart skipped a beat as she saw the red eyes of the alpha behind Derek’s body before it was thrown at the school wall forcefully.

Her flight mode kicked into gear and she shot like a bullet to Scott and Stiles, grabbing both of them by the hand, before running full speed to the school doors. No way could the three of them fight that thing. They had the numbers, sure, but he had the size, the strength, and the heightened senses. It was like putting a bunny into the cage of a hungry snake; and they were the bunny.

Once the three managed to get inside, both boys clung to the push handles of the door, shouting about needing a key to lock it. However, when Scott said ‘grab anything’ Aubrey’s heart sank seeing the look of plan on Stiles’ face. The jittery boy stood up and looked out the door window, to what she was unsure, but that didn’t stop her hand from reaching his in moments.

“Stiles whatever you are thinking, don’t you dare do it,” she pleaded as Scott stood up as well, looking out the other window.

“No,” Scott agreed with her. “Stiles don’t.”

“Yes.” Stiles thrust a light into Scott’s hand and pushed open the door quietly.

So they didn’t give away Stiles’ position, the other two teen stayed silent as they watched their friend through the windows. He made it down the steps to the set of abandoned bolt cutters, but that is when Scott shouted and banged on the door next to her. Her eyes shot up from their place on Stiles to the alpha slinking towards him. Aubrey’s heart began pounding to the rhythm of her own hammering on the door. He needed to get back inside now.

Stiles had glanced to the two before putting his attention in the direction of the alpha. Upon seeing the animal he ran back up to the door which Aubrey happily threw open for him. Once he was safe inside, and the bolt cutters were jammed into the door handles, did Aubrey pull him into a bone crushing hug. He didn’t have time to return it before she pulled away and slapped his arm with all the force she could muster – which was not a lot.

“I swear to god, if you do anything that stupid again the alpha will be the least of your worries,” she bit out, walking away from the door. Scott checked for the alpha while Stiles stood there dumbfounded.

“That won’t hold will it,” Scott asked, dread laced in his voice.

“No,” Aubrey answered, “So we need to get out of here before it decides to bust in those doors.”

The echoed howl from the alpha caused the trio to jump. Scott was the first to take off down the unlit halls of Beacon Hills High, followed by Stiles, and leading up the rear was Aubrey.

One of the classrooms on the right side of the hall was left open, giving them a place to hide in for now. Scott ran in at lightning speed and pushed the teacher desk barely two inches before Stiles stopped him, “The door will not keep it out. It’s your boss.”

“What?”

“Deaton. The alpha. Your boss.”

“No.”

“Yes,” Aubrey jumped in. “It makes sense Scott. Derek didn’t touch him, so that means he left on his own. Your howl could have triggered him to turn.”

“Exactly,” Stiles threw his hand up in her direction. “She agrees. Your boss is a murdering, psycho werewolf.”

“That can’t be,” Scott tried, putting more of his weight onto the desk.

“Come on,” Stiles moves his head in disbelief, “He disappears and that thing shows up 10 seconds later to toss Derek 20 feet through the air? That’s not convenient timing?”

“He killed Derek, Scott.” Aubrey’s voice was small. “He’s dead, and if we don’t get out of here we’re next.”

“Okay,” he conceded, “Just – what do we do?”

“Get to my jeep,” Stiles declared. “We get out of here, and you seriously think about quitting your job, good?”

Aubrey nodded while Scott just stared down at the desk in thought. Stiles took that as a green light and moved to the window to get a better vantage point on where the alpha was lurking. Scott fell out of his stunned daze and was by their side trying to push open the window.

“They don’t open.”

“Then we break it.”

“Which will cause a lot of noise and lead the alpha right to us,” Aubrey reasoned, “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we can out run that thing.”

Scott huffed and moved his gaze back outside, to the parking lot, “Stiles what’s wrong with the hood of your jeep?”

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong.”

“It’s bent.”

“You mean like dented?” Stiles tried to move Scott out of the way so he could look at his precious car, only to see what the others saw. The hood was bent at an odd angle, like something had been ripped out of it.

The shattering of glass above the teens confirmed that thought though, as a large box was thrown through the window. All three dove to the ground breathing heavily, trying to shield themselves from the falling glass. The box barely missing their ducking bodies as it slid across the floor.

“What the hell is that,” Aubrey muttered to the two boys on either side of her. Noticing that Stiles was closer to her, a hand resting on her left shoulder, like he was trying to protect her from the glass bits.

“That’s my battery,” Stiles answered. He made to stand before Scott reached across Aubrey’s lap and grabbed hold of his best friend’s jacket.

“Don’t move. He could be right outside.”

“He is right outside,” Stiles hissed back, standing straight up. He scanned the area before squatting back down. “Nothing. Move now?”

“Move now,” both Aubrey and Scott confirmed. Scott pulled her up with him and soon the trio was standing out in the open hallway. Both directions gave off an eerie, endless vibe and the shadows were messing with Aubrey’s mind – making her see shapes and figures that weren’t actually there.

Scott and Stiles turned in circles before bickering on where to go. A place with no windows was ideal, but, as Scott coarsely informed them, the whole school has windows. A place with less windows was Stiles’ solution to the problem. Then it dawned on them: the locker room.

They took off down the left side of the hallway, taking two turns into neighboring halls before the three stumbled into the unlocked boy’s locker room. Aubrey felt like her nose was being assaulted as soon as she entered. The smell was pungent, but that was the least of her worries at the moment. She could deal with the smell if this room kept them alive.

She followed Scott’s lead as he weaved in and out of the rows of lockers until they were in the middle of the room. “Call your dad,” Scott ordered Stiles.

“And tell him what?”

“I don’t know, anything. There’s a gas leak, a fire, whatever. If the alpha sees a parking lot full of police officers, it’ll take off.”

“What if it doesn’t,” Aubrey exclaimed. “What if it kills everyone on the force? My uncle and Stiles’ dad are both working tonight and I would really appreciate them not being torn to shreds.”

“They have guns,” Scott defended as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Yeah, and Derek had to be taken down with a wolfsbane bullet to even slow him down,” Stiles rationalized, throwing his arms around wildly to make a point.

“We have to find another way to get out of this, Scott.”

“What about Derek’s car?”

“That could work,” Stiles nodded along with the idea. “We go outside, we get the keys off his dead body, and then we take his car.”

“And him.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes at Stiles comment about leaving Derek’s body behind. She still didn’t like the guy, but Stiles straight up detested him.

She moved first and rounded a row of lockers, spotting the exit door. Both boys trailed behind her, the light Stiles held illuminating the door and its handle. She reached out to open it, but before she could even lay a finger on it Scott grabbed her wrist. Aubrey shoved away her instinct to twist her hand so she would be the one holding his wrist, and instead looked back at him. He only kept his eyes on the door skeptically, “I think I heard something.”

Aubrey’s heart jumped to her throat as she backed away from the door, now in-between both of them. They kept backing up until they were once again on par with a row of lockers. That’s when Scott whispered, “Hide.”

Stiles was the first to move then, opening and climbing into a vacant locker. He didn’t shut it immediately, but waited for her and Scott to move too. She nodded and climbed into the locker next to Stiles whilst Scott took the one across from him. The sound of all three locker doors closing echoed quietly in the empty room.

Once Aubrey was covered by darkness, except for the light coming in from the small openings above her head, she realized that her breathing was way too loud. She’d bet Scott could hear it without his super hearing. A hand shot up to her mouth to control the source of the noise or at least muffle it.

No time passed before light footsteps sounded on the tile floor, a terrified scream soon following. Stiles’ locker door slammed open and blocked any light from entering her locker, making it difficult for her to find the inside release button. When she was able open the locker though, both boys were trying to shush the janitor, who was kneeled over trying to catch his breath.

“-you trying to do, kill me?” He stood up and made eye contact with her. “All of you get out.”

“Just listen for half a second, okay,” Stiles pleaded. It didn’t work. The janitor grabbed Scott and pushed him into Stiles. He then shoved both boys out of the door, grabbing Aubrey by the arm and tossing her out right after. She stumbled right into Stiles, knocking him and herself to the ground. He landed on his butt, sitting up right, and she found herself on his lap.

“Shut up and go,” the janitor all but shouted behind her. But that shout morphed into a scream accompanied by non-human growls.

Aubrey scrambled out of Stiles’ lap and back onto her feet, not having enough time to think about the position they were just in. She hauled Stiles up as well when he grabbed her hand, which gave her barely enough time to see the janitor’s bloody hands on the blurred window of the door before they vanished. She gasped out in surprise when he collided with the door again, still screaming.

Scott made a move for the door, probably to help him, but it was too late to save him. Stiles realized this as well, grabbing Scott and pulling him down the hall, away from the chaos. Aubrey ran after them.

They clambered up the nearest flight of stairs and sprinted down hallway they landed on, which happened to lead them to one of the sets of doors that leads to the back of the school. Scott and Stiles were just seconds in front of her and rammed into both doors, expecting them to burst open. That was not the case, unfortunately. Although they were unlocked, the doors didn’t open more than a foot. Scott tested his luck and stuck his head out of the small space allowed.

“It’s a dumpster,” he announced, “He pushed it in front of the door to block us in.”

Aubrey could see Stiles frown before he pushed the door repeatedly as if he could move the heavy dumpster if he kept doing it. He couldn’t.

“Stiles enough,” Aubrey shouted. He didn’t register her voice though and continued. As he reared back again, she moved forward and grabbed his arm to yank him back. He stumbled as she manipulated her force to turn them around and sling him back down the hallway.

Stiles continued the momentum, not saying anything, and walked down the hall – Aubrey and Scott struggling briefly to match his step. “I’m not dying here,” he mumbled, “I’m not dying at school.”

“We’re not going to die,” Scott said.

They hastily walked, looking behind themselves every other step to make sure nothing attacked them from the rear. “God, what does it even want,” Aubrey breathed out, increasing her pace so she was slightly in front of them.

“Me. Derek says it’s stronger with a pack.”

“Great. A psychotic werewolf who’s into team work. That’s – that’s beautiful,” was Stiles’ sarcastic comment. Aubrey huffed, but continued walking. However, she failed to notice both boys behind her had stopped until she was just passed the wall of windows on her left.

She whipped her body around, when she no longer heard their footsteps behind her, only to see both looking out the window. Their stillness didn’t last long. “Aubrey run,” Scott bellowed before he and Stiles took off down the hall they just came from.

Her brief confusion disappeared as she moved her body backwards to avoid the large figure about to crash through the window. That small wave of energy allowed her to gain the speed she needed to flee from the alpha as soon as he shattered the glass windows, his body slamming into the opposing wall.

Aubrey squeaked when she turned the corner, catching his red eyes before she hurdled herself down the stairs. She kept running, taking turns wherever she could to try and lose it. After running up another set of stairs, taking them two at a time, she slowed down only to hear nothing. No noise. No growls. No footsteps. No one was there with her at the moment which means the alpha chose to go after Scott and Stiles instead of her. It made sense since Scott was the one the alpha wanted, it was just strange to Aubrey that he didn’t go for the most vulnerable at the moment. Not that she was complaining or anything.

She allowed herself to catch her breath and mark her location. She was on the second floor of the school, near a chemistry classroom. She tried the door closest to her to find it unlocked. It was tempting to hide away in there until she thought of a solid plan to escape this school, but Aubrey eased the door closed again and moved back into the center of the hallway. She would keep that room in that back of her mind as a place to hide if needed. For now, though, she had to find Scott and Stiles and get out of this hell hole.

Aubrey looked down both directions of the hall. Down the left side of the hall was seemingly a dead end that might have a fire escape exit or something. The right side of the hall was the way she came from and the way back to the front of the building. She took in a shaky breath and slowly walked back the way she came.

Every shadow set her on edge. The occasional creeks and groans of the walls and ceiling didn’t help either. She took the stairs one step at a time, straining to hear anything else. Any noise from her friends or a growl from the animal chasing them. Nothing. It was so silent a pen could drop across the hall and she would hear it.

That is until Aubrey was on the first level of the school, a scrape of a claw sounded on the tile behind her. She stiffened, glancing over her shoulder. There was a dark figure that towered behind her and a flash of red caught her eye, but it gone in an instance. Adrenaline replaced the fear she felt about the alpha being right behind her and she ran in the direction of the lobby. If she made it there she would text Stiles.

She turned right at the end of the hall, her breathing the only noise she could hear now. She saw doors ahead of her and braced for impact. Luckily the door she slammed into, at top speeds, flew open – allowing her access to the lobby.

Loud screams replaced the silence. Aubrey looked around her and saw everyone standing in the room: Scott, Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and Jackson.

“What the hell are you guys doing here,” she exhaled, giving the three newcomers a confused look.

“Aubrey, oh my god,” Allison spoke. “Where were you?”

She didn’t get the luxury of answering before a loud thud boomed above their heads. Scott barely had time to tell everyone to run before the alpha burst through the ceiling, slamming onto the floor on all fours.

Aubrey obeyed his command and sprinted out the door she came through, back out into the familiar dark hallway. She led the entire group as the beast’s claws scratched the floor behind them, chasing them. The cafeteria doors were ahead and she just prayed they would make it to them before the alpha caught up to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to cut Night School in half because it was getting to long, so this episode will be a two parter. I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to comment, favorite, and kudo! Thanks for reading.  
> ~~Starstruck


	10. Chapter Ten

The doors of the cafeteria burst open and everyone tumbled in after Aubrey – Scott shutting them straightaway once they were all inside. He called for anyone to help him put things in front of the door, pulling one of the tables over to block it. It wasn’t the best plan considering the cafeteria had a whole wall of windows that the alpha could crash through whenever it felt like it; they could not barricade themselves inside this room. But Scott must have forgotten where they ended up, just thinking of the alpha hunting them and the need to protect his friends.

She heard Stiles try and get their attention just as Allison and Lydia began helping build the barricade. Except nobody was listening to him, well no one besides her. It wasn’t until everyone had finished blocking the door that they gave Stiles any mind.

“Okay, nick work,” he started bitterly. “Really beautiful job everyone. Now what should we do about the twenty foot wall of windows?”

Stiles threw his arms dramatically towards the windows to make sure everyone understood what they had just done. No response to his question came. Instead Allison chose that moment to ask her own question. “Can somebody please explain to me what’s going on? Because I’m freaking out here.”

Scott, Stiles, and Aubrey held their tongues, not knowing what to say. It wasn’t like they could straight up say that a giant, alpha werewolf was trying to kill them. They wouldn’t believe it. On top of that, Aubrey was fairly certain that both boys were terrible liars, so they couldn’t come up with a plausible story to tell their friends right now.

“Someone killed the janitor,” Stiles gave as Scott backed away a little, distancing himself from the curious stares.

“What?”

“Yeah, the janitor is dead,” Aubrey backed up shakily.

“What? Who killed him,” Jackson demanded, stepping in front of Lydia and Allison.

“No, no, no, no. This was supposed to be over,” Lydia mumbled to herself, grabbing her hair in a frustrated manner. “The mountain lion was killed-“

“-No, don’t you get it?” Jackson grabbed Lydia’s arm and practically shouted in her face. “There was no mountain lion.”

Allison interjected on Jackson’s freak out to voice more of her probing questions on who it was and why they were after them. She directed all of them to Scott, only wanting answers from him, but that was not happening. Scott just kept telling them that it was going to kill them if they stepped out. Definitely not the answer anyone wanted or expected to receive – sans Stiles and Aubrey. It sent the three newcomers into a frenzy, each merely wanting to know more about who was trying to kill them.

Finally Scott just burst with an answer, “It’s Derek. Derek Hale.”

Aubrey’s mouth opened, but she snapped it shut just as quickly. Her stunned silence didn’t stop her from knowing that was probably the stupidest answer Scott could have given them. He could have said he didn’t know or he didn’t see his face or literally anything else. For all they even knew Derek could have healed himself and survived. If that were the case than Scott just incriminated the only werewolf that could help him control his powers.

“Are you sure,” Allison asked, arms folding across her body in fright.

“I saw him,” Scott defended.

“The mountain lion,” Lydia mumbled again, only getting Jackson angry once more.

Scott continued to support himself by saying Derek was behind the murders: his sister, the bus driver, and the video store clerk, and now Derek was in the school with them. “And if we don’t get out of here now, he’s going to kill us too,” he finished.

“Call the cops.” Jackson turned to Stiles in particular, knowing his dad is the town’s sheriff. What Jackson didn’t know though, is that they had already deemed that plan a bad idea.

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean no,” Stiles repeated. “You want to hear it in Spanish? No.”

“Let’s chill for a second and collect ourselves, okay,” Aubrey piped up with a calm voice. Surprisingly the small group of teens visibly relaxed at the sound of her voice, but that would probably only last a minute before they were all on edge again. “Whoever it is has killed three people already. We don’t know what he is armed with or what he will do before the cops can reach us. So we need a plan that will get all of us out of here alive without endangering anyone else.”

“But his dad is armed with an entire sheriff’s department,” Jackson whined to her, pointing in the direction of Stiles. “It’s basically their job to protect us while endangering themselves. Call him.”

“I’m calling,” Lydia said. Her phone in hand as she walked away from the shouting Jackson so she could hear the dispatcher who picked up. After a sentence or two Lydia turned back around to everyone, lowering the phone from her ear. “She hung up on me.”

“The police hung up on you,” Allison asked, confused.

“She said they got a tip warning them that there was going to be a prank call about a break-in at the high school. She also said she would trace the call if I called again.”

“Okay, then call again,” Scott suggested.

Stiles rolled his eyes along with Aubrey. “No they won’t trace it.”

“Yeah, they’ll send someone to your house before they send anyone here,” Aubrey finished Stiles’ thought.

That set off everyone again and Aubrey was beginning to feel like she was the only one with a level head around here, keeping calm under all this madness, all things considered. But maybe that was because she didn’t have any questions directed at her like Scott did. She was in the clear to think for a minute without being bombarded by inquiries.

The room settled down as Stiles pulled Scott away from the other four so he could calm the werewolf down and get the spot light off of him for a second. She would have joined if it weren’t for Jackson’s piercing, accusatory stare on the two boys and herself. As if he knew that they knew more than they were letting on. She didn’t need to add fuel to the fire, so she stayed put, lost in her head.

Ideas on escape briefly came to her, but were castoff just as quickly as they were presented. Aubrey groaned to herself. This entire thing was a mess, especially since the others showed up. Why did they even show up, she asked herself, there was no reason for them to be here.

She didn’t get to ask the spontaneous question before Jackson piped up with a not-so-new proposal on what to do. “Okay, assheads. New plan. Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to send someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?”

Aubrey narrowed her eyes at Jackson for making the comment about the sheriff being useless, and would have gladly punched him if it wasn’t for Scott jumping in. “He’s right. Tell him the truth if you have to, just call him.”

Stiles gave his friend a ‘what the hell’ look. “I’m not watching my dad get eaten alive,” he whispered back harshly, only loud enough for Scott and her to hear.

Jackson huffed and charged up behind Stiles as the other boy was turned around. “Alright, give me the phone.”

The lacrosse captain barely touched his hand on Stiles’ shoulder before he was thrown to the ground due to the force of the punch he received to the face. Aubrey was pleasantly surprised by the strength Stiles had behind the punch, sending a small, unnoticed grin to the boy.

Allison rushed to Jackson’s aid as Stiles pulled out his own phone from his pocket and dialed his dad. The phone was placed to his ear as he watched everyone else in the room. “Hey dad, it’s me. And it’s your voicemail.” Aubrey’s stomach dropped. If his dad didn’t answer that meant it would be a while before the police showed. With that thought in mind, she remembered the other person they could call: her uncle.

She fished out her phone from her pocket, scrolling through her contacts swiftly trying to locate his. She pressed the call button as soon as she saw his picture. “Please pick up, please pick up,” Aubrey muttered into the phone.

The cafeteria doors rattled vehemently as Stiles was finishing his voicemail to his dad. The alpha had heard everything and obviously did not like the new plan of action. He continued to ram into the doors as Stiles told his dad they were at the school.

The cafeteria shook again and Aubrey turned to look for any other exit, phone still ringing in her ear. Her eyes scanned everything behind them, the only possible way out was through the kitchen, but she wasn’t sure if it actually let out somewhere else. When Stiles hung up the phone she called out to him. “Stiles, is there an exit through the kitchen?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah! The door out the kitchen leads to a stairwell. Nice thinking.”

The entire group floored it to the kitchen, not wanting to see when the creature broke through. Scott was first up the stairs and Aubrey was once again the rear of the group which increased her already spiked anxiety. She didn’t have time to dwell on that before the other side of the phone stopped ringing, “Hey kiddo.”

Relief flooded through her as she heard Finn’s voice. “Finn. Thank god. Listen we are at the school and someone is trying to kill us.” They all climbed the stairs speedily; her shooting glances behind her as if the alpha would suddenly appear and drag her back down the steps. But those were morbid thoughts that she did not need in her head at the moment.

“What? Aubrey, repeat that.” He sounded more alert now than he was when he picked up the phone. In the meantime, everyone around her was piling through the door at the top of the stairs. Once they were all through, Aubrey realized they were on the second floor, more specifically, close to the chemistry room she came across earlier.

“Come on,” she shouted to her friends, dropping the phone from her ear choosing to run down the hall instead of answer her uncle. “This way.”

The pounding of footsteps reverberated behind her as everyone followed her lead. She skidded to a halt in front of the chemistry class and wasted no time flinging the door open, rushing into the classroom. Scott was the last one in and he shut the door quietly, shoving a chair under the handle for good measure. Aubrey canceled the call with Finn, deeming it too risky with the Alpha’s super hearing. She didn’t want to be the reason they all died, so she also muted her phone, hoping that Finn got the Sheriff and they were on their way to the school.

It was just in time too, not sixty seconds passed before a growl and a shadow passed right by their hiding place.

Aubrey not even realizing she was holding her breath until Allison let out a shuddered gasp beside her. The threat had passed for now which meant that they had to find a way out of here before it came back. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak though, most still frozen in place.

That was until Scott broke the silence, whispering across the class to Jackson. “How many people can fit into your car?”

“Six, I guess. Two people will have to sit on people’s laps.”

“Six,” Allison hissed, “I barely fit in the back.”

Stiles spoke up destroying that idea, “It doesn’t matter. There is no way out without drawing attention.”

Scott grabbed Stiles and looked around. His eyes caught the other door in the classroom, the one that only led to the roof; he explained just that to the rest of the group.

“It has a deadbolt,” Aubrey pointed out, moving closer to both Scott and Stiles. “Without a key there is no opening it, so we’re still stuck.”

“The janitor has a key.”

“You mean his body has it,” Stiles corrected.

Scott leaned in closer to Stiles and whispered something to him that she was unable to hear, no matter how much she strained her ears. When Scott pulled back Stiles uttered harshly, “Well, gee, that sounds like a terrible idea. Anything else?”

“I’ll get the key.”

“Or we could wait until the police get here,” Aubrey suggested. He ignored it though and walked back over to the others to inform them of his stupid plan, Aubrey and Stiles following. At this point she would have to start keeping track of how many awful ideas he came up with. Right now it was at two.

“You can’t go out there unarmed,” Allison rationalized. While Aubrey knew he was a wolf, and therefore semi-capable of handling the situation without a weapon, he needed to put on an act for the others. That led Scott to grab the pointer stick next to the board.

“There’s got to be something else,” Stiles said.

“There is.” Lydia’s attention fell on the chemical cabinet behind Allison.

“What are we going to do? Throw acid on him?”

“No like a fire bomb. In there is everything you need to make a self-igniting Molotov cocktail.”

Hell yeah, Aubrey praised internally, thank god for Lydia and her obscure knowledge. Jackson broke the glass to the case using his covered elbow and Aubrey helped pull out the chemicals. Lydia hurried to a counter and began to pull out all the supplies she would need, such as a beaker and funnel. Aubrey placed the chemicals she could carry down before going back for the rest – Lydia already beginning the mixture.

The strawberry blonde seemed to know all the measurements and ingredients by heart which slightly terrified Aubrey, how many times had Lydia made this thing? But as she watched her friend work, she decided it didn’t matter so long as it functioned the way it should.

Lydia added the last chemical, per Jackson’s help, and corked the beaker. Scott now had a weapon to defend himself against the alpha. He grabbed the beaker from her and moved towards the door, ready to take on the enemy, but Allison stood in his path. “No. No, this is insane, you can’t do this. You cannot go out there.”

“We can’t just sit here and wait for Stiles’ dad to check his messages,” Scott reasoned with her.

Aubrey could tell Allison was getting more frustrated with this idea as the moments passed. The other girl leaned closer to Scott, “You could die. Don’t you get that? He’s killed three people.”

“And we’re next.” Scott’s features relaxed in defeat at the recognition they could die in this school if nothing was done. Voice cracking as he spoke again, “Somebody has to do something.”

Allison looked about ready to burst into tears on the spot at the thought of her boyfriend going out to face a killer on his own. “Scott, just stop. Do you remember when you told me you knew whether or not I was lying? That I had a tell?” The girl took in a shuddered breath, the tears on her face now visible in the moonlight. “So do you. You’re a terrible liar and you’ve been lying all night. Just please – please don’t go. Please.”

Scott could barely keep his eyes on her any more, likely knowing that if he held her stare for too long than he would stay. He then told no one in particular to lock the door behind him after he left, no longer looking at his girlfriend. In a last ditch effort, Allison grabbed Scott’s face and kissed him.

Aubrey looked away from the couple as they kissed as a last goodbye, like they would never see each other again. She had a gut feeling, however, that they would and Scott would not be dying out there at the hands of the alpha. Scott pulled away and walked out the door. Once he vanished into the hall, Aubrey moved to lock the door behind him once more. It was just the five of them now.

Allison stayed still, staring at the door while Aubrey walked back over to Stiles, near the roof door. She didn’t bother saying anything and instead slid down the door until she was on the ground. This was so stupid, what were they thinking? She tried to rack her brain for another solution while everyone in the room moved closer to where she planted herself on the ground. Allison jumped onto one of the counters, Stiles stood next to her, and Jackson and Lydia leaned on a counter.

Stiles eventually slid down the wall and sat next to her. Aubrey fiddled with her hands anxiously before whispering, “Do you think he knows what he’s doing?”

“Knowing Scott? No,” he answered, voice strangely steady. “He has the best intentions though.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

The room fell into silence once more until Allison’s shaking got the better of her and she began to ask why he left again. Aubrey made to stand up and comfort her friend, but Jackson beat her to it. He grabbed Allison’s trembling hands with his own and relayed soothing words to her. That seemed to work for the most part, the tears still falling from her cheeks were slowing down as Allison was trying to stop them. Jackson continued to rub her hands regardless.

Aubrey also noticed the way Jackson was looking at Allison, as if he was falling for her or something. Lydia noticed it too, but chose to advert her gaze to the other side of the classroom. “Jackson, you handed me the sulfuric acid, right? It has to be sulfuric acid. It won’t ignite if it’s not.”

“I gave you exactly what you asked for, didn’t I,” he said gruffly, almost snarling at her. He didn’t answer Lydia’s question.

Aubrey glared up at the blond boy, not even needing to look over at the chemicals to know that he gave Lydia the wrong one. He screwed over Scott for no logical reason other than petty revenge. Whatever vulnerable side he had shown her earlier that day was clearly not who he really was or wanted to be. It was all just a manipulation game born out of jealousy.

She would have chewed him out for it if they weren’t in this position. Instead she bit her tongue and continued to wait in the agonizing silence. But a wall shaking roar interrupted her thoughts and soon Jackson was on the ground screaming in pain, grabbing the back of his neck.

Aubrey and Stiles jumped up in alert, catching the puncture wounds on the back of Jackson’s neck before he could hide them again. Allison and Lydia then hauled him back to his feet. He protested when he was up right, stepping away from everyone, saying he was okay.

“What’s on the back of your neck,” Stiles asked, pointing a finger to the injury. Jackson slapped his hand away without answering which left Stiles to gape at the boy.

“I said I’m okay, so keep your spastic hands away from me Stilinski.”

“Jackson you seriously need to chill,” Aubrey hissed. “We just wanted to see if you were injured, which you clearly are, so can you try not to be a prick about it.”

“I’m not the prick here. You just won’t take my word that I’m fine.”

“Oh, like you were fine at the video store?”

Jackson glared daggers at her, but couldn’t say anything before Stiles butted back into the conversation. “Okay. Can we not argue for half a second?”

Allison spoke up, shaking again. “Where’s Scott he should be back by now?”

No one had an answer for her, everyone returning to the familiar state of silence. That is until they heard the click from the lock on the outside class door. They rushed over, Allison getting there first and screaming for Scott as she tried to open the door. It wasn’t budging though, he had locked the five teens in the class before walking away.

Eventually Lydia finally got Allison to stop her yelling by announcing that she heard something. Each of them closed their mouths and waited, listening for anything. Then outside multiple sirens rang out as they got closer to the school. They all darted to the windows just in time to see a few police cruisers pull into the parking lot, near Stiles’ jeep. However, a crucial thing that Aubrey noticed was the lack of a black Camaro, so that could mean Derek was alive or the alpha took the car and fled – that didn’t make a whole lot of sense though considering he was way too large to fit in that sport’s car.

They watched as Sheriff Stilinski exited the first car and checked Stiles jeep, it was empty of course given that they were all in the school. As to avoid them from having to search all the classrooms, top to bottom, Aubrey had the bright idea of banging on the window. Lydia also started to slap the glass when she realized what her plan was.

It only took a few tries before the officers were shining their flashlights up onto the second floor. The light passed in front of their window which caused all of them to start waving their hands like it depended on it. The Sheriff dropped his flashlight and dug around in his pocket. Stiles’ phone dinged seconds later in the semi-quiet room.

He typed back a quick response to his dad and Aubrey noticed the Sheriff pocket his phone, calling for the other officers to enter the school. Just before they disappeared into the building, they all drew their guns in preparation for the worst. Now all the teens had to do was wait.

Wait they did. It was another forty-five minutes before officers were banging on the classroom door they were stuck in. The rest of the hallways had been cleared so now the students trapped were their priority, the entire school – including every classroom – to be searched again later. They removed the hinges off the door, taking it out of the frame to let them all out safely. Each student filed out one by one, greeted by lit hallways and multiple officers.

When Aubrey saw her Uncle Finn standing amongst them, she didn’t fight the urge to give him a hug. He willingly returned it with equal force, relieved that his niece wasn’t injured or harmed in any way that he could tell. Both in their own world of relief, neither noticed the other officers escorting her friends away from the classroom until they pulled away.

“Maybe it was a bad idea to tell you to go make some friends,” Finn laughed lightly, still holding onto Aubrey.

“It got me out of the house, didn’t it,” she forced a smirk. Finn only shook his head and pulled her into a hug again before guiding her out of the building.

As they approached the exit doors they ended up being behind the Sheriff, his son, and Scott, who was loudly accusing Derek Hale of being the killer. The three, however, were out of the building before she could hear more. Even when her and her uncle made it out of that school, he dragged her down the ramp to the left so she would be far away from the other two boys. That was okay though, especially since they basically spent the entire night close to each other, running for their lives.

He ended up bringing her over to where Allison was just getting off the phone. She broke away from Finn and strode up behind her. “Hey Ally.”

Allison didn’t bother turning, she just continued to stare out at the dark woods surrounding the school. “Hey.”

Aubrey came up next to her friend and lightly touched her arm, “I know you won’t want to talk about what happened right now or maybe even ever. But I just, um, want to let you know that I’m hear if you want to talk or if you want things explained.”

Her friend took in a juddered breath, “Thanks. I’ll – I’ll text you later.”

Aubrey nodded, but it would go unnoticed as Allison took her hand, squeezed it, and walked away from the school. Aubrey didn’t chase after her, allowing her to have a moment to come to terms with what just happened. She turned around herself and made her way back over to Finn, who was waiting by his cruiser patiently.

He opened the passenger door for her, “You ready to go home and get an ear full from your aunt. I’m pretty sure she will not let you go anywhere for the next week.”

“I’ll take that over being stuck at school any day.” Aubrey sat down in the car, Finn closing the door before walking over to Sheriff Stilinski. Whilst she waited for her guardian to finish what he needed to, she closed her eyes and eased her head against the headrest. It had been a long day and an even longer night. She couldn’t wait to get home and drown herself in blankets and pillows, things that weren’t going to rip her apart.

At this point it was beginning to feel like Finn’s playful comment held some truth behind it, maybe it had been a bad idea to make friends. So far it has gotten her into nothing but trouble and near death situations. That could also be just her bad luck. It seemed like it has gotten worse over the last few years, like disaster just followed her around – bringing storms of ruin with it. It could all just be in her head though, amplified by her distressed state at the moment. Who is to say, but it’s nothing she won’t overcome in time; she hoped at least.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Not surprisingly, school had been cancelled Thursday and Friday so the police could investigate what happened. It was honestly such a relief, four days to just lay around her room and distract herself – in theory. After the first two, Aubrey was becoming restless for some odd reason, so when Allison texted her on Saturday morning that she wanted to talk she jumped at the opportunity to leave the house.

Her aunt was not as thrilled about the idea though. It took more effort than Aubrey would like to admit to stop her aunt from dragging her back upstairs and locking her away in her room. They had come to an agreement after arguing back and forth for a while: Gen would drive her over to Allison’s and pick her up, then Aubrey would stay home until the school opened again. She could deal with that.

Ten minutes later, Gen was begrudgingly pulling up in front of the Argent residence. Aubrey pushed open the door, informing her aunt she would text when she was ready to leave. Gen nodded roughly, and watched her niece walk up to the house then vanish through the doorway.

Aubrey had been greeted by Mrs. Argent, but it wasn’t a pleasant greeting. She had been more hostile and less inclined to let Aubrey inside this time around, she allowed her to none the less. Aubrey trudged up the stairs and knocked on Allison’s bedroom door. A muffled come in was heard through the thick door moments later. Carefully she entered the room only to see Allison curled up in her bed, hair disheveled and bags under her dark, puffy eyes.

“Hey Ally.”

“Thanks for coming Bre.” Allison sat up more as her friend moved into the room all the way, shutting the door behind her.

Aubrey kicked off her flats as she sat down on the bed. “How you holding up?”

“Honestly? Not great.” She took in a trembled breath, trying to hold back any emotions. “I still can’t wrap my head around what happened. We could’ve died in there and-and Scott risked his life trying to play hero. I-I broke up with him and not to mention I can’t help but feel like everyone around me is lying or hiding something. This is all just one big mess.”

Aubrey nodded along with the rant while she crossed her legs. She reached across and grabbed both of Allison’s hands when the girl finished. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re not alone in this.”

“I just – I guess I just need someone who won’t lie to me. Please, can you tell me what’s really going on?”

“I told you I would right,” Aubrey rubbed circles on Allison’s hands – her go to move for comfort. “You have to promise me that you’ll keep an open mind because this is going to get crazy. But I think after what happened Wednesday it’ll be more believable.”

Aubrey jumped into the whole explanation of werewolves and hunters, trying to go into enough detail so Allison would understand. She told her about the alpha and how there were other beta wolves out there – excluding the part about who they were, leaving it up to Scott to share that secret with her. She also informed her friend about what her parents did for a living, even sharing that her dad was the same.

Allison listened without so much as a word, even staying silent after Aubrey finished. It took several minutes before her friend finally spoke. “Hunters,” Allison murmured, “My parents and yours are both werewolf hunters. Werewolves are real. And you’re not messing with me?”

“Yes, they’re real Ally. All of it is real. The alpha was there that night; he was the one chasing us. Tell me you didn’t see something wrong with its shape as it was following us.”

Allison hesitated, but for a split second something registered on her face that it all made sense. “It – it was huge, bigger than any human I’ve ever seen. Red eyes, too.”

Aubrey nodded in confirmation, but she stayed mute as to not derail Allison’s trip down memory lane or disturb any of the other thoughts that would enter her mind. Allison pulled her hands away and ran them through her hair before pulling them down her face. “This is all surreal. I can’t-“

She cut herself off, so Aubrey jumped in, “I know it’s insane, but if you still need proof ask your Aunt Kate to show you some self-defense things. She seems a little extreme with this sort of thing and I’m pretty sure she wants to tell you all about werewolves, too. She’ll probably allude to them or something. You just have to know what to listen to.”

“Do you know self-defense things?”

“Yes, and Kate offered to teach me more that night we came over for dinner. She doesn’t know I know though, so I don’t really know what she’s playing at, if anything. Or if she just wants as many recruits as possible to help her hunt the alpha. I’m not really sure yet, but I plan to find out.”

Allison remained silent, trying to think through all of the things she was just told. Aubrey patiently waited, relieved that Allison finally believed everything she was saying. When her friend didn’t say anything for a while, Aubrey stood up from the bed.

“I think that’s enough for today. If you have more questions call me. I’ll be here with you through all of this, okay? You can talk to me about anything.”

Allison nodded as Aubrey slipped her shoes back on. She made her way to the door, but before she opened it a voice in her head reminded her of one last thing. “Allison, I would wait to tell anyone what you know. Just to be on the safe side.”

With that Aubrey glided out of Allison’s room, pulling her phone out of her pocket while walking down the staircase. However, there on the bottom step, blocking her only exit, was Kate Argent. Her heart jumped a little at seeing the other woman, but she tried not to let it show.

“Aubrey, I’m surprised to see you here,” Kate smiled.

“Um, Allison wanted me to stop by.”

“I see. Actually while you’re here, I was able to find one of your dad’s old tools he used while hunting.” Aubrey walked down the rest of the flight and Kate gestured to follow her. She hesitated at first, but complied – following Kate through the living room and kitchen. “I was thinking since the whole incident at the school you might want to learn how to use it.”

Kate continued walking until they reach the backdoor that led into the Argent’s backyard. Aubrey trailed, curious about what she was talking about. When they walked into the backyard she noticed it wasn’t that spectacular in itself, the grass was the only thing that was well kept. The lonely shed that Kate was leading her to did not seem that stable either, but Aubrey should learn not to judge a book by its cover.

Kate held open the door for her and inside it was completely furnished with nice tables and cabinets. Guns were locked away in sturdy cages for display and there were multiple locked glass cases to show case other weapons, like knives.

“Holy shit,” Aubrey whispered to herself, turning in circles to take in all of the items the Argent’s owned. They did live up to the title of hunters.

Kate filed into the deceiving shed, locking the door behind her. She sauntered over to one of the less obvious cabinets and unlocked it using a key she stored away in her pocket. “This is what I wanted to show you.” She flung open the doors; inside were a few guns and knives, but most noticeable was the item in the center. It was a black staff with a blade at one end that was connected by a design similar to the hilt of a sword.

Aubrey’s mouth fell open as Kate took it out of the case. “This was your father’s. He really liked using bo staffs in training, so he had this crafted. It’s based off an authentic Celtic spear.”

Kate thrust it in front of her as an offering to Aubrey, who took it cautiously. She placed the bottom of the spear on the ground and measured it against herself. It almost seemed like a perfect fit for her.

“Wow, I think that’s an excellent match for you,” Kate commented, eyes glowing.

Aubrey turned the spear in her hand, looking at it from every angle. It was beautiful and looked to have been recently polished. It was a very interesting choice, giving off a medieval atheistic.

“Of course, we won’t start you right off the bat with that. We’ll work up to it with other bo staffs.”

“What? You mean you’ll actually teach me how to use this,” Aubrey said, not taking her eyes away from the spear’s blade.

“Well, yes. I think I said that,” Kate chuckled casually. “I think you should learn how to defend yourself and while we train I can share stories about your dad like I promised last time I offered.”

Kate gripped the staff. Aubrey let go so the older woman could place it back where it came from. “Okay. I think I would benefit from training again.”

“Great. I can drag out a mat behind the shed and you can show me some of the self-defense moves you still know.”

“Right now?”

Kate nodded, “Might as well since you are here. Unless you’re not up to it.”

Aubrey faltered for a moment. “I’m up to it.”

Kate grinned, a wicked glint dancing across her eyes that Aubrey was too slow in noticing. “I thought so. Let’s get started.”


	11. Chapter Eleven

The students were a buzz of chatter and speculations about what happened at the school last week. Rumors spread around quickly while the Hale name was being tarnished due to Scott’s accusations, but Aubrey was in no position to stop the rumors, nor did she care enough to do so. She heard multiple things as classes went on, but there was always one constant: the question on who Derek was after. The police were not allowed to release their names to the public, so no one in Beacon County truly knew who was at the school that night.

However, just because no one else knew about the incident didn’t mean she wasn’t bombarded with questions or offers to talk. Those came daily from her aunt and uncle; both trying to pry the information out of her or figure out what she saw that night. On top of that, now that she knew the truth about the supernatural, she could easily point out the double entendre in their words. She was finding it more and more difficult to play ignorant, but was also reluctant to tell them she knew anything about the supernatural, afraid of the other problems that could arise from spilling the secret.

That was a problem for another time, right now she only had to worry about the test she was about to take in Harris’ class. Aubrey took some comfort in the fact that she actually had time to study; this was one test she would not want to fail.

Mr. Harris went around the class, haphazardly throwing the test booklet onto each desk he passed. She chose to ignore his rude behavior, writing her name on the cover as soon as she got it. People were still flooding into the room, so she had time to sit back and go over all the notes she memorized in preparation. That is until Stiles plopped down in the seat next to hers. He kept quiet, only bouncing his leg nervously as the bell finally rang, although he did open his mouth a few times as if wanting to talk to her.

“You have 45 minutes to complete the test. You can earn 25% now simply by writing your name on the cover of the blue book,” Harris’ voice boomed over the silent students. “But, as happens every year, one of you will inexplicable fail to put your name on the cover, and I’ll be left questioning why I ever wanted to be a teacher.”

At this point, she honestly wondered the same. She wouldn’t even be surprised if he was secretly an alcoholic who drank away the pains of teaching while grading papers. Harris started the timer with a gruff, “Begin.”

Aubrey’s pencil seemingly moved on its own as she took out questions left and right. She was halfway through question ten when the loud screeching of a chair pulled her attention away. Scott was rising from his seat and rushing out of the class, backpack slung over one shoulder. Harris called after him, but made no move to stop him. Before she could blink Stiles jumped out of his seat as well, going after Scott.

She didn’t want to press her luck and follow, so she put her attention back on the test – fighting the curiosity that dwelled within her. Whatever problem they had going on right now she would be informed later, hopefully. Okay, question ten, she put her mind back on track.

Everything seemed to come easily to her and she finished the entire test before the time ran out. That is when she noticed that neither Scott nor Stiles ever returned from where they had run off to in the beginning of class. The pull of her meddlesome ways almost had her out of the uncomfortable school chair and into the hall to find them. She held back reluctantly, tapping her foot rhythmically – waiting for the bell.

She glanced at the clock every few minutes, but time crawled by at an agonizingly slow pace. The more time she spent trapped in her thoughts, the more anxious she became. Her thoughts were not the happiest place to be at the moment; flooding her head with flashes of red, screams, claws, and dark figures lurking in every corner.

When the class was finally dismissed Aubrey was not hesitant in shooting up from her seat and to the door. However, she barely exited the classroom to find the boys before Allison was pulling at her arm. “Hey, do you have a sec?”

“Um, of course.” Aubrey’s gaze flicked across the faces that passed by before they landed on Allison’s.

“Are you sure Scott’s okay? He acted very strange at the beginning of class and then the running out. I just – I don’t know. I’m questioning myself again – I just don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. I think the break up is taking a toll on him, but it’s nothing he won’t bounce back from.” She saw Allison’s expression drop a little in guilt, causing her to reach out and comfort the other girl as they walked down the hall. “Hey, it’s okay. You needed the break to sort out how you feel. There is no shame in that – nothing to feel guilty for. Yes, it does suck, but that’s how it’s supposed to feel. It’ll be hard. One thing I know though is that you’re tougher than you appear and so is Scott, you’ll both be able to handle this. You guys could come to find that a break is exactly what you needed to make your relationship stronger than it was before.”

Allison held a small smile, “Thanks Aubrey. Surprisingly you’re really good at this whole comforting thing.”

“Ouch Ally,” she laughed shoving her friend lightly. “I’ll have you know I’m an expert in this field and I’ll be damned if my techniques don’t work.”

The minute bell for classes rang through the emptying halls and Allison pulled Aubrey in for a quick hug. A quiet ‘thanks’ resonated in her ear before the brunette was running down the hall to try and get to class on time. That left Aubrey alone to walk to class, she was not bothering with running – already knowing she would be late.

She turned down the hall that held her next class, but she was startled to see someone else present. He was bent over trying to pick up things from the floor; from the looks of it there were just papers and books that had spilled. Without much thought, Aubrey knelt down and collected a book and some papers so he wasn’t there any longer than he needed to be.

The boy seemed a bit thrown off by her sudden appearance, jumping slightly which made his dirty blond curls bounce on his head. He looked up shyly at her, giving her the chance to finally see his face: it was none other than Isaac Lahey. She was fairly sure at least. Aubrey had rarely spoken with him, mainly just seeing him in passing – possibly having sat next to him in a class or two the previous year. However, just because she hardly talked to him didn’t mean she didn’t know his name – she tried to remember everyone’s name for reference.

“Need some help,” she held out the papers in front of her, an offering for him to take it.

His mouth opened before his head ducked back down. “Yeah. Thanks.” He grabbed the papers, shoving them carelessly into his backpack. He was trying to move this interaction along faster, likely embarrassed that someone had seen him drop all of his things.

Aubrey would have returned some sort of nice response if she hadn’t caught the large purple mark on his face as he stood up. It caught her off guard and a sense of contrite bubbled to the surface. “Are you okay Isaac?”

His eyes grew before he winced at the action. “I’m, um, just fine. We should get to our classes. Thanks.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly at him as he kept his head down, looking away from her – hiding the mark. “At this point I might as well ditch. Hate math anyway.” She shrugged casually, “But I won’t pry on what happened if it makes you uncomfortable.”

He glanced towards her, giving her the chance to fully see his face in the terrible lighting that the school had. Aubrey let in a short gasp that barely lasted a second when she saw the purple and black half circle under his left eye. It would have been unnoticeable if he kept his head down and no one bothered to look at his face, which was probably his plan.

Aubrey felt a spark of anger burn inside of her. She hardly knew the kid, but she did not appreciate the fact that someone found it okay to bully and harm him. He was an introvert, maybe an outcast, but that should change nothing. “Who did this to you?”

“No one,” he mumbled out, “Fell and hit myself at my job.”

Her eye twitched at the answer. It was spoken as if he had rehearsed the excuse before, knowing he would be questioned about it. She almost demanded the shy boy to tell her who had done it, promising herself to inflict unfathomable misery on them. Reality caught her before she spoke though, reminding her that she didn’t know him – it wasn’t her place to intervene right now.

“If you’re sure,” Aubrey settled on with a sigh. He took that as a good place to leave the conversation and booked it down the hall, away from her. She twisted in her spot and watched him disappear down the direction she had originally come from. She felt bad for him because he seemed like a nice guy, someone who certainly did not deserve that mark or any others.

With one last look down the hall, Aubrey continued down the hall and passed her class – planning to relax near the fields until next period. Once she found a spot, her head was swimming with thoughts on what she could possibly do to help Isaac or find out what was really going on in his life. She knew she had no right to know or really do anything, but she could try. Besides, focusing her attention on someone who needed it beat thinking about the supernatural problems she was involved in at the moment. She needed a breather.

~~~~~*~~~~~

“You know the Winter Formal is coming up,” Lydia commented as they walked towards the locker room. “Have you thought of someone you want to go with?”

“Not really. I’ve been sort of busy, and had no time to be thinking about guys.”

“Mm, I call bull.” Both girls stopped at the end of the hall, right before the locker rooms. Lydia crossed her arms and cocked her eyebrow at Aubrey. “You have been spending a lot of your time with that Skiles guy, Scott’s friend. Is there anything there?”

Aubrey’s cheeks warmed as she turned her head away, embarrassed. “No. Stiles and I are just friends. Friends hang out; you and I are friends and we hang out.” It wasn’t the strongest argument she could have used, but she couldn’t out Stiles’ crush on Lydia in order for the other girl not to push her into asking Stiles to the dance.

“Not the same,” a smirk formed on Lydia’s freshly glossed lips. “Besides I can see the way he loo-“

A voice interrupted, “Hey, um, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Aubrey and Lydia both looked up and saw Scott standing unnaturally still, with a strange glint in his eye that was almost unnoticeable. “Oh, um, hi Scott.”

His eyes flicked between Aubrey and Lydia before finally settling on hers, he raised his eyebrows expectantly. Lydia took the hint, gesturing with her head for Scott and Aubrey to follow her down the hall. She stopped in front of coach’s office briefly before disappearing down the rest of the hall, leaving the two semi-friends alone to talk. Considering Scott did not stop her as she left it was evident he wanted to speak with Aubrey instead of her fiery friend.

Aubrey’s eyes followed the other girl’s every move, but she shifted her attention to Scott once the strawberry blonde was gone. He walked into the office without a word, her trailing behind awkwardly – shutting the door for more privacy. Scott let out a large sigh, running his hand through his floppy hair. “Aubrey, do you – do you know if Allison still likes me?”

Her features softened at the deflated tone of his voice. “Of course she still likes you, Scott. Allison will always like you, but right now she just needs space.”

“Space,” he repeated quietly.

“Space. She’s scared and confused after what happened here, but I think she is coming to grips that what you did, leaving us there in that classroom, was to save us.” It was a subtle reference to Allison’s growing knowledge of the supernatural, but Scott didn’t look like he could handle that news at the moment.

He didn’t bother replying, so Aubrey touched the hand he had resting on coach’s desk. His eyes shot up and connected with hers. “Everything will work itself out. You just have to give it time because dwelling on it constantly will only keep you down in the gutters.”

He barely had a reaction to her words, but the squeeze he gave her hand told Aubrey that he understood what she was getting at. However, that was not the only thing he decided to do to show his gratitude for her short pep talk.

Scott’s lips found their way onto Aubrey’s in seconds, his other hand resting on her hip. She was momentarily stunned by the action before she snapped back and pulled her head away from his. Scott’s eyes fluttered open, confusion crossing his face. “What are you doing?”

“Showing my appreciation for your appreciation.” He leaned back in and barely touched her lips again before she reacted. She pulled away from his grip and backed up in the direction of the door. A feral growl came from Scott as his features hardened to the strange state they were in when he first asked to talk. It was like a chilling calmness that was unnatural for Scott’s warm, inviting persona.

He took a few strides towards her, trying to kiss her once more. However, she was ready for him as he invaded her personal space. Aubrey maneuvered her weight the way Kate had taught her, grabbing the hand Scott reached out towards her. She used his fleeting surprise against him and before he could blink he was on his back looking up at her. She grinned down at him, proud that she successfully flipped him over. “I think the break up and the full moon are getting in your head Scott. I’ll give you a warning that next time, I won’t just flip you onto your back.”

Aubrey stepped over his fallen body to the door. She gave a passing glance over her shoulder before exiting the office, seeing the boy’s dumbfounded expression as he rubbed his head. Not a trace of guilt found its way into her mind and she couldn’t help thinking that he deserved it for pulling a stunt like that. It might have worked on another girl, but it sure as hell would not work on her.

More judgments like that pounded in her head as she made her way down to the lacrosse field – trying to reason out what just happened. She was almost one hundred percent positive that she did not allude to wanting a heated make out session with him. It was probably his hormones going off the charts due to the full moon because Scott would never kiss her – why would he – they still hardly knew each other.

She tried pushing all of those feelings away when she sat down next to Lydia on the bleachers to watch the practice. Except it became harder when Scott walked onto the field, rubbing the back of his head with a scowl on his face. He didn’t even look at her when he passed by, instead keeping his eyes locked ahead of him. A tingling sensation ran up Aubrey’s arm, accompanied by an uneasy feeling about Scott’s shift in personality.

It wasn’t long after Scott sat down that practice started. She wouldn’t deny that she was only there because Lydia asked, but when she saw Stiles get up with the rest of the first line team she felt elated and glad she came – despite the situation right before. Stiles had brought up the topic of lacrosse a few times when they hung out, somehow always working in how cool it would be to be on first line like Scott. To get all of that attention. Aubrey smiled in his direction, positive that he must be leaping with excitement on the inside.

Yet that elated feeling changed when Scott was tackled to the ground in one of the exercises then he proceeded to take down Danny, whom was in goal. She let an auditory gasp escape her lips as she jumped from her spot on the bleachers. Scott was getting more out of control as the minutes passed by and he needed to snap out of it, or at least try to hide it better. Lydia stood up as well and both girls rushed onto the field to see the aftermath.

“Is he okay,” Lydia asked Jackson hastily. He didn’t even look at his girlfriend, just keeping his eyes on his friend.

“Yeah, it just looks like he has a bloody nose.” He glanced over at Lydia before his eyes locked with Aubrey’s.

He stared for a solid five seconds before she quirked her head as him, “What?”

“Your lipstick.” She rose her eyebrows, ready to retort that she didn’t wear lipstick. However, she remembered when Lydia gave her some to wear this morning, claiming that it would pull her outfit together. It must have gotten messed up when Scott kissed her though.

Lydia noticed as well, pulling out her compact mirror so Aubrey could see what the issue was. The gloss was pushed up on her top lip, fairly unnoticeable unless you stared at her for too long. She smudged it away none the less, hoping that Lydia would not put the pieces together: her lips being fine before talking to Scott and messed up after.

“Hm, well, I do kind of suck at this whole makeup thing,” she commented, giving Lydia the mirror. “Is it bad now?”

“You’re all good,” Lydia said, sending her a silent message about wanting an explanation later on. Aubrey nodded, shifting her attention back onto the injured player now sitting up. She didn’t even notice Stiles’ flattened posture as he looked between her and Scott.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The full moon was rising steadily in the darkening sky as Aubrey stood on her balcony that overlooked her front yard and some of the forest behind her house. She had tried calling Stiles to see if he needed help with Scott, but he didn’t pick up. She also wasn’t able to talk to him after practice because he walked off with Scott while she was pulled along by Lydia. She shouldn’t feel as dejected as she did, but for a reason she couldn’t think of, she was. It was strange not having talked to Stiles all day, considering that ever since they had become actual friends they had talked daily. It was a nice change.

These feelings led her out onto the balcony to get some air; it being one of the places she could go to in order to clear her mind and think – or try to at least. Aubrey sucked in a breath of the cool night air before placing her elbows on the railing, head resting in her hands. This felt like the longest week ever; she felt trapped in the days, constantly replaying the run away from the alpha, the training, and every one of her new friend’s small changes away from who they once were.

Plus, now that she was alone, a small voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she chose to stay aligned with the supernatural. She chose this and there was no going back. It felt repetitive, probably because that is all that seemingly occupied her thoughts now a days. You are your own worst enemy after all, Aubrey reminded herself.

A shiver of goosebumps ran across her arms, leading her out of her daze and into a stare off with the looming trees as they grew ever so darker. Aubrey fully anticipated a pair of red eyes to be roaming around, but she was pleasantly greeted by nothing. Just the shake of the leaves as the wind blew gently. The scene was almost too peacefully. That is until she saw a blurry figure on the tree line, resting a hand on the bark, just staring up at her.

Aubrey squinted, trying to make out any other features or defining characteristics. However, the most she could see was the body type: slightly curvy, petite, fairly feminine. That puzzled her even more. She didn’t know any women, supernatural or otherwise, that would be bothered to watch her from the tree line, on a full moon. The alpha Aubrey could sort of understand, him only wanting to keep an eye on his targets – not any less terrifying, but understandable. This person, she had no idea.

“Hey,” she found her voice stupidly calling out to the stranger.

No reaction, not even a flinch in the outstretched arm. Aubrey’s heart stuttered; waiting for any thing to happen. Nothing did, until a few minutes passed by. The women faded out of focus. She wasn’t moving or backing up into the trees, she was just dissolving like steam. Soon enough the figure blended into the light fog growing on the ground.

“Of course. No one is actually there,” she muttered to herself. “I’m just imagining things and now talking to myself to make sense of this. Ridiculous.”

Aubrey shook her head, still looking out into the dark as if the women would reappear. She didn’t and the only reason Aubrey turned away was when her phone started to buzz in her pocket. It was Stiles.

“Hey,” she answered skeptically. “I thought you were screening my calls.”

He didn’t humor her by playing along, just jumping into why he called. “You haven’t seen Scott running around have you.”

“No.” Aubrey sauntered back into her room, making sure to lock the balcony door behind her. “Why? Please tell me you did not lose a werewolf on a full moon.”

“Nope, totally did not do that thing,” Stiles replied too quickly for comfort.

“Right. Do you need any help finding him?”

“No. I have to go.”

With that, the line went dead. Aubrey pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the screen before throwing it onto her bed. His voice had a tinge of anger and resentment that snuck through the few words he said. That sent her into a spiral of questions. He couldn’t possibly be mad at her, right? She didn’t recall anything that would have made him irate. It must have been losing Scott.

Aubrey flopped face down on her bed, joining her discarded phone. Humoring herself she thought that maybe the full moon was getting inside her head as well – amplifying the voice in her head up to ten as well as making her see things that weren’t actually there. That was absurd though. Absolutely absurd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. I didn't have internet and was having some writer's block. I don't think this is my strongest chapter, but I hope you liked it anyways. If you have any suggestions or questions I would love to hear them. Thanks for reading!
> 
> ~~Starstruck

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm really late in joining the Teen Wold fandom which is really unfortunate because the show was really good. I know that not a lot of people will read this story because of that reason, but I couldn't stop thinking about this story idea. Hopefully it will turn out okay.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the first chapter anyway and it wasn't too terrible. Stay tuned for more.  
> ~~Starstruck


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